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BIBLE B'S 

FOR BEAUTIFUL LIVING, 



BY... 



/ 

ABBIE C. MORROW. 



A BOOK OF DAILY DEVOTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



If we would but cease our longing 
Some great thing to do or say, 

We could do more good by BEING good 
Than in any other way. 



1^ 

CHICAGO, ILL. \0" 

T. B. ARNOLD, PUBLISHER. 
1897. 



The I 










Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, by 
ABBIE C. MORROW, /V ^ ^ 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,- D. 0. 



" UNTO HIM 

That loved us, 

And washed us from our sins 

In His own blood, 

And hath made us kings and priests 

Unto God; 

To Him be glory and dominion 

Forever and ever." 

Rev. 1: 5, 6. 



CONTENTS. 

B SAVED 11 

B FAITHFUL 18 

B CHEERFUL 26 

B STRONG 31 

B OBEDIENT 39 

B KIND 46 

B CONTENT ' 54 

B A LIGHT 61 

B AFFECTIONATE 70 

B SOBER 75 

B WITNESSES 83 

B JOYFUL 92 

B WATCHFUL 99 

B COURTEOUS 107 

B THANKFUL 115 

B PATIENT 122 

B HEALTHY 129 

B TRUE 136 

B STEADFAST 144 

B PITIFUL 151 



6 CONTENTS. 

B TRANSFORMED 158 

B A BLESSING . 165 

B SUBJECT 173 

B READY 181 

B MINDFUL 188 

B QUIET 195 

B DILIGENT , 203 

B FOLLOWERS 211 

B PERFECT 218 



INTRODUCTION. 

Because I love you, children, I long that you shall be 
Now, in life's morning, treading the narrow way with me. 
I love you, little travelers, and pray that you may stand, 
With the journey safely over, in the Father's sunny land. 

Because I love you, children, now in your childhood sweet, 
I long to bring you closely unto the Savior's feet. 
No joy is like the pleasure of always serving Him; 
I long for you to have it ere years your life shall dim. 

Because I love you, children, I would that you should know 
How dangerous is the pathway which the pilgrims tread 

below; 
But there is waiting ready the Guide of life and light, 
And those who cling to Jesus will walk the way aright. 

Because I love you, children, I point you day by day 

To the Lamb of God, who taketh the world's great sin 

away; 
And I ask the gentle Master to give to you the place 
Among the willing learners to whom He shows His face. 

Because I love you, children, I cannot be content, 
Unless I have you with me when this life of ours is spent. 
Oh, seek the Savior early, and in His home above 
We all shall dwell together, I and the ones I love." 



PREFACE. 

THIS little book of "daily" devotion (Ac. 17: 11) is meant 
to be read "early" in the morning, in connection with your 
Bible. Pr. 8: 17. 

Read the texts at the head of the Bible B for the day, and 
mark them in your Bible according to the directions. Jer. 15: 16. 

Read the chapter, marking the other texts as you come to 
them, either with crayon or colored inks. 1 Ti. 4: 13, second 
clause. 

Pray the prayer at the end of each Bible B. Lu. 18: 1. 

Say to yourself, "I will be kind to-day," or, "I will be 
courteous to-day." Let the thought of the Bible B you read 
each morning be with you all the day, to help you. 

If you cannot do all this early in the morning, learn one 
text, earnestly offer the prayer at the end, and then, later in 
the day, read the Bible B. One dear child speaking about 
"Bible Morning Glories," said: "1 have to make them Even- 
ing Glories, for I do not have time in the morning." 

The design on the cover was drawn by Mary A. Lath- 
bury. The Bible is placed between the lilies, which stand 
for purity, and the palms, which stand for victory. The little 
bees remind us to follow their example and B doers, B dili- 
gent, B obedient and B content. 

May He who gave the desire to write the book, bless 
every one, young and old, every time they read it, is the 
prayer of THE AUTHOR. 



First Bible B. 
B Saved. 

1. " Look unto me, and be ye saved." Isa. 45 : 22. 

2. " God our Savior : Who will have all men to be saved." 
1 Ti. 2 : 3, 4. 

3. "There is none other name under heaven g-iven among 
men, whereby we must be saved." Ac. 4:12. 

"Believe and be saved." Lu, 8 : 12. 

Mark with a red f 

I. We are saved ''by grace." Eph. 2 : 5,8. 
Grace is the exercise of love, kindness, mercy or 
favor. God "sent His only-begotten Son. . . .that 
the world through Him might be saved." Jno. 3: 
16, 17. That was grace. Jesus "loved me and 
gave Himself for me." Ga. 2 : 20. That was 
grace. The angel said to Joseph, " Thou shalt 
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people 
from their sins." Mat. 1 : 21. 

Jesus came from heaven and took our place 
and suffered for our sins. That was grace. In a 
town in Scotland there is a school where the chil- 
dren are poor and do not know how to behave 
and give the kind but firm master a good deal of 
trouble. Half a dozen of the most noisy girls had 
tried his patience for a long time and one day he 
told the scholars that he could bear no longer 
with them and called the six up for punishment. 



12 B SAVED. 

The teacher with his cane in his hand looked 
over the faces of the children and asked whether 
anyone would like to bear the punishment for the 
naughty girls, and they go free. For a few 
minutes no one spoke, and then a little lad was 
seen feeling his way slowly up the room. It was 
blind Jimmy, the orphan boy. "I'm willing," he 
said. 

The master told him that he must be pun- 
ished in place of the culprits ; the blind boy said 
he knew that. When the cane came down on his 
shoulders, he never murmured. 

When the master told the girls they were for- 
given for Jimmy's sake, they rushed to the blind 
boy, thanking him. He only said, " I dinna mind 
the pain if it will only bring 'ee to Jesus." 

Our loving Savior bore our punishment in our 
stead. " All we like sheep have gone astray, we 
have turned every one to his own way, and the 
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 
53:6. By His grace we are saved. 

II. Saved by the Word. We are born again 
" by the word of God." 1 Pe. 1 : 23. On the day 
of Pentecost as many as " gladly received His 
word were baptized." Ac. 2 : 41. When we 
receive God's Word, we receive Jesus. One of His 
names is "The Word." Jno. 1 : 1, 13. A poor 
little child in Luther's time was taught that God 
was angry with her and she must inflict suffering 
upon herself to escape an awful doom that 
waited for her when she died. She was always 



B SAVED. 13 

the picture of sorrow as, day by day, she inflicted 
some pain on herself to appease God. 

One day she picked up a scrap of paper and 
read the words, " For God so loved the world, 

that He gave " At the word "gave" the 

paper had been torn off. So she had only a frag- 
ment of the verse. She thought of those words, 
until her whole nature was changed. Her life 
became cheery and happy, and her face radiant 
with joy. 

Her mother asked her one day why she was 
so changed. The little girl showed her the scrap 
of paper and said, "That has done it." 

The mother read the words, and replied, "But 
it don't say what He gave." 

The girl answered, " I don't know what He 
gave. If He so loved the world as to give any- 
thing, I won't be afraid of Him any more." 

It was a bit of a verse from the Word of God 
that saved her. Did you know there are many 
boys and girls in heathen lands who have not even 
one verse from God's Word? Do you not want to 
put away some of your money every week to send 
the gospel to them? 

III. Saved by Faith. Jesus said to a poor, 
sinful woman, " Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in 
peace." Lu. 7 : 50. She believed Jesus' word and 
went home saved and happy. 

One Sunday afternoon a mother had a little 
talk with her children about faith. Awhile after, 
as she was going past the room where her little 



14 B SAVED. 

girl slept, she saw the child kneeling by her bed 
and heard her pray, " O, Lord Jesus Christ, I love 
You very much, but I cant understand about 
faith." When Katie came downstairs, her mother 
said to her, " Dear child, the others are in the gar- 
den, and we shall be quiet if you like to have a 
little more talk." 

" Oh, thank you, mamma," Katie said, "that's 
just what I want ; I do love a cosy time with you." 

u Katie, dear, do you trust me?" asked her 
mother, as the child nestled in her arms. 

"Oh, mother dear, of course I do! if you 
promise me anything I am quite sure you will give 
it me, because I am your own little girl, and you 
love me." 

" That day when you broke the china plate, 
and were sorry, and came crying to ask me to for- 
give you, and I kissed you and told you it was an 
accident, did you say ' I don't think mamma has 
forgiven me : I don't feel as if she had : and 
I am so unhappy,' did you Katie?" 

" No, mother, that I didn't! I knew you had 
forgiven me because you said so. I never doubt- 
ed it for a minute! and that knowledge brought 
peace to my heart." 

" Katie, that was faith." Katie did not ans- 
wer for a moment : she was trying to take in the 
simple truth that faith in the Lord out of sight 
was the same as faith in the mother close beside 
her. " Is that all, mamma?" she asked, softly. 



B SAVED. 15 

14 Have I only to believe what God says, just 
as I believe you?" 

" Yes, my child : faith is taking God at His 
word— trusting Him as you trust me. Jesus says, 
'Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid 
them not;' Mat. 19 : 14. He means what He says 
and really wants you to come. When He tells us 
in His Word, ' Their sins will I remember no 
more,' (Heb. 8 : 12,) will you have such a doubt- 
ing little heart as to think He did not know how 
bad you were, and so the promise could not be for 
you? Katie, you would not treat me so : the 
Lord Jesus in His love comes to entreat you to 
believe what He says, and that is faith." 

Katie whispered, " I do believe Jesus ; I do 
love Jesus; then I suppose that. is faith." Her 
mother was so glad that her little girl believed 
Jesus and was saved. 

To believe God loved me and Jesus died for 
me is to be saved. Paul said to the jailer, 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt 

BE SAVED." Ac. l6: 31. 

Edward Irving, on a visit to his brother, who 
was a minister, was asked by him to go and see a 
young man, a member of the church, who was 
dying with consumption. He was obliged to call 
about six in the morning, before he went on his 
journey. 

When the two ministers entered the sick 
chamber, Irving went up to the bed-side, and look- 
ing in the face of the sufferer, said softly, but 



1 6 B SAVED. 

earnestly, " George, God loves you ; be assured 
of this. God loves you." 

After the man of God closed his hurried visit, 
the young man's sister coming in found her 
brother all smiles. 

"What do you think?" cried the dying lad ; 
11 Mr. Irving says God loves me!" Faith in the 
love of God for him had made him so happy. 

One day a man fell from a ship into the 
water. The Captain ordered the men to throw 
him a rope. They did so. The poor fellow saw 
the rope and caught hold of it with both hands, and 
the Captain pulled him onboard. He was saved. 
One person relating the incident would say, "He 
was saved by the Captain ;" another might say, 
" He was saved by a rope," and still another " He 
was saved by his hands." And they would all 
tell the truth. 

So we are saved by grace, which may stand 
for the Captain, for Jesus is " the Captain" of our 
salvation (He. 2 : 10), and we are saved by the 
Word of God, the promise of God, which may 
stand for the rope, and we are saved by faith, 
which stands for the man's hands taking hold of 
the rope. All were necessary — the Captain, the 
rope, the hands. So we are saved by the grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Word of God, and 
by our faith in God's Word. 

Our Prayer: Blessed Lord, we thank Thee 
for Thy love; we praise Thee for Thy grace. We 
are sorry we have ever seemed against Thee, 



B SAVED. 17 

We take Jesus Christ from this day to be our 
Savior and Lord. We say now from full hearts — 

11 Lord, I believe, 

Lord, I believe : 

Savior raise my faith in Thee 

'Till it can move a mountain. 

Lord, I believe, 

Lord, I believe, 

All my sins You bury in the Fountain." 



Second Bible B. 
B Faithful. 

Look up the following texts in the Bible and write the 
names of seven of the greatest men whom God said were "faith- 
ful," or " full of faith." 

Gal. 3:9 

Heh. 3 : 58, 5 

IS. 3 : BO (Marg.) 

1 S. 33 : 14 

Ac. 6 : 5. 

Ac. 11.24 

ICo. 4 : 17 

Underline their names in the Bible with blue. 

I. To be faithful is to be full of faith, to believe 
God will keep His Word and give us all He prom- 
ises. To believe He forgives all our sins when we 
ask Him. Faith is believing God just as you 
believe your father and mother. 

A train was rushing along at great speed. 
The passengers were anxious, because it was in 
the time of war, and they were afraid that the 
enemy might tear up the tracks. One man in the 
car observed a bright little girl, who came towards 
him and said, " Good morning," in a clear, sweet 
voice. He asked her if she was not afraid to ride 



B FAITHFUL. 1 9 

on the cars. She said, ll Sometimes, but I am not 
afraid this time." "Why are you not afraid this 
time? Everybody else seems to be afraid. 
Besides the train is running very rapidly." " Oh, 
there is no danger. Papa is running the engine." 
Her father was the engineer, and she had such 
faith in him, that she felt perfectly secure and 
happy. When we have God to guide us, we have 
nothing to fear. He is much better able to pro- 
tect us than the engineer was to take care of his 
little daughter. 

II. To be fait! i fid is to be trusted. 

Evangelist Chas. W. McCrossan says, 
44 Years ago a dry goods merchant hired a boy 
whose duty it was to sweep and dust the store 
each morning. One evening the merchant scat- 
tered some loose papers under one of the counters. 
The next morning entering the store he said, 
4 Well, my lad, have you swept good and clean 
this morning?' The boy said, ' Yes sir.' 4 Did 
you sweep under all the counters?' 4 Yes sir.' 
The merchant then looked under the counter and 
picked up the pieces of paper he had scattered, 
4 Ah, my boy,' he said, 'you did not sweep under 
the counter. I cannot trust you.' Then he paid 
the boy and discharged him. The little fellow 
lost his place because he could not be trusted to 
speak the truth and do his work right. It is one 
thing for us to trust God and another for us to be 
so faithful that God can trust us. 

A gentleman leaving his home for the day, 



20 B FAITHFUL. 

took out his purse to see if he had plenty of 
change. He went away, leaving a trusted dog 
behind. When he dined he took out his purse 
and found that he had lost a gold coin. On 
returning home in the evening, his servant told 
him that the dog was ill, as they could not induce 
him to eat anything. He went at once to look at 
his favorite, and as soon as he entered the room, 
the faithful creature ran to him, laid the missing 
coin at his feet, and then devoured the food with 
eagerness. The gentleman had dropped the coin 
in the morning ; the dog picked it up and kept it 
in his mouth, fearing even to eat, lest he lose his 
master's property before he should have a chance 
to give it to him. I think the master was more 
pleased that he had such a faithful dog than he 
was to have the gold coin back again. 

III. To be faithful is to keep that which thou 
hast promised. Deu. 23 : 23. 

During the time of great trouble in France in 
1871 an order was issued in Paris that Communist 
insurgents who were taken with arms in their 
hands should be put to death. 

One day a large party were being taken to the 
place of execution. Among them was a fifteen 
year old boy. On the way he left his companions 
and ran on and put himself in front of the Col- 
onel who had charge of the company. Giving the 
military salute he said, — 

" Mister, you're going to shoot me, I suppose?" 

" Certainly, my lad," said the colonel, " Tak- 



B FAITHFUL. 21 

en with arms in your hands, it's all up with you. 
That is the order." 

11 All right!" said the boy, 4k but see here ; I 

live in M Street where my mother'll wait for 

me if I don't come home and she'll worry. I just 
want to go home and quiet her a bit, you know : 
and then, again, I've got my watch here ; I'd like 
to give it to mother, so she'll have that, anyway. 
Come, Colonel, let me run home a little while. I 
give you my word I'll come back to be shot!" 

The colonel was astonished at the boy's 
demand. It amused him. 

11 You give me your word eh, that you'll 
return to be executed?" 

11 My word of honor, mister!" 

"Well, well," said the colonel, "this young 
scamp has wit as well as assurance. A rather 
young rebel to shoot, too! Well, his assurance 
has saved him. Go home, boy!" 

The youth bowed and ran off. " The last we 
shall see of him," said the colonel. 

Half an hour passed ; the colonel had for- 
gotten, in the press of his terrible business, all 
about the boy, whom he had regarded as being 
set free. But all at once the door opened and the 
boy Communist walked in. 

" Here I am, mister!" he exclaimed. " I saw 
mother, told her, gave her the watch, and kissed 
her. Now I'm ready." 

The boy had kept his word and had come back- 
to be shot as he had promised. But the Colonel, who 



22 B FAITHFUL. 

had not really believed that he would return and 
who hated to put to death such a bright boy, caught 
him by the ears and pulled him playfully to the 
door and gave him a little kick and said, " Get 
out, you young brigand! Get back to your 
mother just as quick as you can!" 

Don't you believe the mother was glad to see 
her boy and proud that he had been so faithful? 

IV. To be fait I if id is to be true at any cost. 

John Maynard was well known on Lake Erie 
as a God-fearing pilot. There came a day when 
he fulfilled to the letter the command, " Be thou 
faithful unto death." Re. 2 : 10. The ship was on 
fire. Some distance from shore and loaded with 
tar and rosin there was no hope of saving her. 
The men, women and children were all crowded 
to the verge of the forward part of the ship. The 
faithful pilot surrounded by fire and smoke, stayed 
at his post. The Captain called through his 
trumpet, "John Maynard," "Ay, ay, sir," said the 
brave man. " How does she head?" "Southeast 
by east, sir." " Head her southeast and run her 
to shore." As they came nearer and nearer, 
their one hope of safety was to reach the shore. 

Again the captain called, "John Maynard!" 
The answer came feebly this time, "Ay, ay, sir," 
"Can you hold on five minutes longer, John?" "By 
God's help, I will." The strong man's left hand 
was disabled, his hair was burned from his scalp, 
his teeth were set with pain, but he stood firm as 
a rock. The ship reached the port. Every man, 



B FAITHFUL. ^ 

woman and child was saved. John Maynard had 
been faithful unto death. In the day of Christ's 
appearing he shall receive a crown of life. But 
one may be faithful unto death without really suf- 
fering physical death. The fifteen year old Com- 
munist boy was. He who gives himself, drowns 
himself, in help and sympathy for others is really 
as faithful unto death as John Maynard. 

V. To be faithful is to do exactly as one is told. 
A little boy five years old was playing with his 
toys in his father's study. Soon the servant came 
and told the father that a friend was waiting to see 
him in the parlor. 

"Johnnie," said the father, "put your hand 
here, and keep it on this letter of mine, until I 
come back." 

"Yes, father," cried the little fellow. But 
when half an hour had passed and his father did 
not come back, Johnnie grew tired. He had looked 
at every picture, and counted the spots on the 
carpet, with his little hand holding the open page. 
Another half-hour passed ; but Johnnie held 
bravely on. Father had bidden him, and he would 
do what father wished ; but oh, how tired he was, 
and how dark it was getting! Where was papa? 
Poor little Johnnie! Papa had started off with 
the man who had called upon him, forgetting all 
about his little boy. And do you know, Johnnie 
waited an hour and a half before his father came 
back, and he stood all that time, holding the let- 
ter, doing exactly as he was told. And when papa 



24 B FAITHFUL. 

came back and found what his little boy had done, 
he caught him in his arms, kissed him, loving and 
praising him for his faithfulness. And I expect 
his father thought, "If I have such a faithful lit- 
tle boy who will do always exactly what he is 
told I must be sure and be faithful to my heav- 
enly Father." So Johnnie's long waiting was not 
in vain. 

VI. He that is faitJiful will be rewarded. It 
was a hot day, and Carl, behind the counter of 
the country store, could not get a breath of air. 
He sat there waiting for customers and wishing he 
could live in the city and have a better salary and 
be able to give his mother a good home. Soon 
a stranger entered and asked for Mr. Emmons, 
Carl's employer. " He is not in but I expect him 
soon, will you wait?" The stranger nodded and 
Carl drew up a chair for him, handed him the 
newspaper and went back to the counter. Two 
boys came in. " Five peppermint sticks, Carl, 
and give us an extra one, as you seem to be run- 
ning things." "But I'm not, when I am I'll 
treat." " Pshaw! the old man won't count them." 
" No, he can trust me." "That's the kind of a 
fellow," said one of the boys, " he does things on 
the square." 

Soon one of Carl's friends came in. After a 
little he said, " Carl, don't you think this is a 
stupid place?" "I guess it is about as slow as they 
make them, Lou." The lad glanced over at the 
stranger. His eyes were closed and Lou thought 



B FAITHFUL. 25 

he was asleep, but he was not. He was listening 
to every word Lou said. 

"Suppose somebody offered you a big place 
in the city with a good salary, would you take it?" 
11 Indeed I would." " I heard Mr. Stubbs tell 
father he was going to offer you a place in his 
warehouse. He thought you were the fellow for 
the place." " He doesn't think so now. He 
offered it to me but I told him I could not work 
Sundays." " Hurrah for you," said his friend ; 
" I told the fellows I didn't believe you'd do it." 
When Mr. Emmons returned he was pleased to 
see the stranger, and they had a private talk at 
the end of which Carl was introduced. The stran- 
ger took him by the hand. " My boy, you're just 
the kind of a lad I'm looking for. I have been 
finding you out this morning. I have a place for 
you in New York. Let us go and talk to your 
mother about it." 

So Carl's honesty and faithfulness were 
rewarded as honesty and faithfulness always will 
be, either in this world or in the next. 

Our Prayer: 

" O Jesus, Savior, give me grace, 

My little place to fill, 
That I may ever walk with Thee, 

And ever do Thy will ; 
And in each duty great or small 

I maybe faithful still." 



Third Bible B. 
8 Cheerful. 

1. "Be of good cheer," because you believe God, Ac. 
27: 25. 

2. " Be of good cheer," for Jesus is a Savior from sin. Mat. 
9: 2. 

3. "Be of good cheer." Jesus is a Savior from sickness. 
Mat. 9: 22. 

4. "Be of good cheer," Jesus has overcome the world. Jn. 
16:33. 

5. "Be of good cheer." There is no loss to the Christian. 
Ac. 27: 22. 

6. " Be of good cheer." You can bear witness for Jesus. 
Ac. 23; 11. 

Mark with gold or yellow [ ] 

I. Be liope fill and happy. Three tiny, ragged 
boys were playing in the sunshine. A fourth 
came up, his eyes glistening. "Oh, boys," he 
cried, " I've foun' a tin-cent piece." The others 
crowded around and discussed the treasure excit- 
edly. Then they sat down on the curb-stone. 
" I foun' mos' a hull piece of a top yesterday," 
said one. " I foun' a big bone in our alley, an' 
orful big bone," said a second," 'n' I'm going to 
make a jumper out of it." The youngest child, 
the dirtiest, smallest, thinnest of them all, now 
chimed in, "Thith mornin' I foun' a peanut." 
A contented child will be happy. 



B CHEERFUL. 2J 

II. Look out for the bright things. A lady and 
gentleman were walking in a lumber-yard situ- 
ated by a dirty, smelling river. The lady said: 
"How good these pine boards smell!" " Pine 
boards!" exclaimed the gentleman, "just smell 
this foul river!" " Thank you," the lady replied ; 
" I prefer to smell the pine boards." 

III. Speak brightly and pleasantly. A lady 
went to inquire for the three-year-old baby of a 
friend, who was so ill she was afraid the little 
thing would not live. She called up the stairway, 
to the mother, in a sad tone, " How is the baby?" 
Before the mother could answer, down from the 
sick room came the baby's weak voice, " Teak like 
you do when you laugh." 

The baby did not like the mournful tone in 
which she was inquired after. Sick people like 
to have you speak brightly and pleasantly to 
them. "A merry heart doeth good like a medi- 
cine," Pr. 17: 22, to them. 

A boy wheeling a heavy cart was almost 
stuck in the mud, when a man said as he gave a 
little push: "You manage that cart pretty well, 
my boy; that's a bad place to get through, but 
now we are out." 

The man passed on, but the boy wheeled the 
cart easier, and his face wore a smile on account 
of the cheerful words. 

A bright "good morning" is a bit of sun- 
shine in a cloudy day, a bit of cheer for a troubled 
heart. 



28 B CHEERFUL. 

Always say "good morning" to papa and 
mamma and brother and sister, and grandpa and 
grandma and uncle and auntie, and nurse and cook, 
and to any friend in the home. It will rest the 
tired, cheer the sad, quiet the worried and make 
the day brighter for all in the home. 

A lady stepped into the elevator of a tall 
building in a large city and said, " Good morning" 
to the colored lad in charge. He looked at her 
in a surprised way, and returned: " Good morn- 
ing. Dat is de fust time anybody ever said it to 
me!" 

IV. Have a smile for the stranger. A minis- 
ter, on his way to church, saw a baby looking out 
of a window. Baby smiled and so did the minis- 
ter. Next Lord's day, there was baby again, and 
the minister caught the smile and returned it. So 
on many times, and when the minister threw a 
kiss, baby threw a kiss back. At length the min- 
ister saw a boy and girl, the brother and sister 
of baby, dressed in their best, run down the steps 
and follow him to the church. They must have 
been pleased with the sermon, for the next Sun- 
day they were in church again. Soon papa and 
mamma followed and seven in that family were 
won to Christ. When they came to join the 
church the minister said they were all saved by 
baby's smile. 

V . Live in the sunlight of the love of God. Some 
time ago one friend wrote to another: 

"While on my way home from church Sun- 



B CHEERFUL. 20, 

day morning I was turning down the street when 
a pleasant voice said, 'Let's take the sunny side.' 
I left the shade and was soon walking in the bright 
warm sunshine. Some time has passed since the 
little event, yet the cheery words of my friend are 
still ringing in my ears. I seem to hear them 
now: 'Let's take the sunny side!' 

" Too often in my life I have chosen the shady 
side, the gloomy side of things, when over yonder 
the sun was shining. God helping me I will here- 
after avoid the damp and chill of the shady side, 
and walk where it is bright and warm." 

A visitor went one day to see a poor young 
girl, kept at home by lameness. The room was 
on the north side of a bleak house, unpleasant 
without, and cheerless within. " You never have 
any sun," the visitor said, "not a ray comes in at 
these windows. What a misfortune! Sunshine 
is everything. I love the sun." " Oh," answered 
the invalid, smiling, "my sun pours in at every win- 
dow, and even through the cracks." Her visitor 
looked surprised. "The Sun of Righteousness," she 
continued softly — "Jesus. He shines in here and 
makes everything bright to me." Her happy face 
confirmed her words. She spoke truly. She 
lived on the shady side of the street, but she lived 
in the sunlight of the love of God. 

VI. Encourage others. Ro. 12 : 8, 1. c. A 
terrible fire was raging at midnight in a large city. 
All were thought to have been saved, when a 
piercing cry told that one soul was perishing. A 



30 B CHEERFUL. 

ladder was raised and fixed against the fiery, heat- 
ed walls and a brave fireman hurried up its rounds 
to the rescue. Near the top, choked by the 
smoke, daunted by the hissing flames, afraid of 
what looked like certain death, he hesitated. 
The crowd watched him breathlessly. Would his 
courage fail, and he retreat and leave the soul 
unrescued? u Cheer him," called a voice from 
the crowd. And a mighty " hurrah " burst from 
the waiting multitude. The cheer inspired the 
brave fireman with new courage. He went on 
into the flames and smoke, and presently returned 
with the rescued one in his arms. There are 
times when a quick, glad shout of cheer to the 
timid, frightened one will send him on to victory. 

Our Prayer — 

" If any little word of mine 

May make a life the brighter, 
If any little song of mine 

May make a heart the lighter, — 
God help me speak the little word, 

And take my bit of singing, 
And drop it in some lonely vale, 

To set the echoes ringing. 

If any little love of mine 

May make a life the sweeter, 
If any little care of mine 

May make a friend's the fleeter — 
If any little lift of mine may ease 

The burden of another, 
God give me love and care and strength 

To help my toiling brother." 



Fourth Bible B. 
B Strong. 

Look up these texts in your Bible, and write here the 
names of six men to whom God said "Be strong." 

Deu. 31: 7 

1 K. 2:3 

3Ch. 15: 7, 8 

Da. 10: 19 

Hag. 3:4 

3Ti. 3: 1 

Mark their names in the Bible with blue. 

"Be strong to love, O heart! 
Love knows not wrong; 
Dids't thou love God in heaven, 
Thou woulds't be strong." 

I Be strong i?i the Lord. Eph. 6: io. Two 
young men, Ellis and Jones, joined a ship one day. 

Ellis loved his Bible, while Jones made sport 
of religion. The first evening Ellis took out his 
Bible and began to read. Jones laughed at him, 
called him a milk-sop, and tried to snatch away 
his Bible. But Ellis hung on to the blessed book 
in spite of the jeers of the young sailor and his 
other wicked messmates. 

One dark night there came a sudden gale, 
which carried away the ship's main-top-gallant- 



32 B STRONG. 

yard. The spar hung by the rigging, and dashed 
about, threatening to carry away the top-mast 
itself. It was necessary to cut it away with 
a hatchet. It was a fearful task, almost certain 
death, to mount the rigging and try to cut away 
the spar. Who would do it? The captain called 
for a volunteer, and seeing Jones said : 

44 Come, my young man, there's work for you. 
I heard you boasting of your manhood the other 
day." 

Ellis, the Bible reader, stepped forward and 
offered to go aloft. 

41 No," said the captain, " I made the offer to 
Jones." 

But Jones shook his head, and said : " I dare 
not, sir. The man who attempts it is sure to lose 
his life." 

44 1 will go," said Ellis, who had fastened a 
hatchet to his belt. 

The next moment the brave fellow 7 was lost 
in the darkness. For several minutes nothing 
could be seen of him from the deck; the men held 
their breath with anxiety for his safety. Pres- 
ently something fell. Was it Ellis? No. It was 
the spar cleared of the tackling. The men 
shouted. A minute later and Ellis stood safely 
on the deck. 

u Thank you, Ellis," said the captain, u you 
did nobly. No man will call you a milk-sop, or 
laugh at your Bible-reading after this." 

Then after sending the watch aloft to shorten 



B STRONG. 33 

sail, the captain turned to Ellis again and asked : 
" How did you feel while you were aloft?" 
u That I was in the hands of God, sir. I 

prayed for His protection, and I never felt my 

heart more light, or my courage more firm." 

God makes the hearts of His children brave 

and strong when they pray and trust. 

II. Be strong by the Word. I Jno. 2: 14; Deu. 
11:8. Mary Geraldine Guinness, in her child- 
hood, was overheard talking, in four-year-old fash- 
ion, to a brother of little faith, though of years 
scarce more than her own. The little boy- 
was questioning his younger sister's calmness in 
moments of fear and under perilous circum- 
stances, such as railway traveling. " I know you'd 
cry if the train went under the ground," he said. 
But the answer came quick and full of child-like 
faith, u No I wouldn't either, for the Bible says, 
4 He that believeth shall not be afraid in dark 
tunnels.' " The child had hid the Word of God 
in her heart and if she could not quote it quite 
right it made her strong. 

III. Be strong for war. 2 S. 10: 12. Marg. 
The enemies we fight are sin and Satan. Jennie 
was sent to the store for a spool of silk. Her 
mamma gave her ten cents saying, " It will be 
just ten cents, dear, so you won't have any 
change." She skipped gaily along and soon 
reached the store but the clerk handed her one 
cent back saying the spool was only nine cents. 
Oh, how ready Satan is to try to catch us! He 



34 B STRONG. 

was right there whispering to Jennie: u You might 
just as well get a stick of candy, your mother 
thinks it is ten cents a spool, and she will never 
know." Jennie turned toward the candy store 
and got as far as the door when she said almost 
out loud, " I w 011 1 do it" and ran quickly, as if to 
flee from the thought of wrong, home to her 
mamma. Oh! how light her heart felt as she 
could look in her mother's eye and say, " It is 
only nine cents, mamma, here is a penny change." 
" You may have it, dear, for a stick of candy," 
was her mother's reply. Oh, how glad she was 
that God had made her strong to fight the temp- 
tation to sin. 

A little boy about four years old, much 
impressed by the story of " St. George and the 
Dragon," said to his father, " I want to be a 
saint and fight a dragon. I am sure I could 
kill one!" "So you shall, my boy." " But when 
can I be one?" "You can begin to-day," said his 
father. " But where is the dragon?" " I will tell 
you when he comes out." 

So the boy went to play with his sister. Dur- 
ing the day some presents came for the children. 
John's was a book, and his sister's a beautiful doll. 
John was too young to care for the book, but he 
loved dolls; and when he found that his sister 
had a nicer present than his own, he threw him- 
self on the floor in a passion of tears. His father 
said quietly : " Now, John, the dragon is out." 
The child stopped crying, and looked quickly 



B STRONG. 35 

around the room, and then up to his father's face, 
but said nothing. At bed-time when he bade his 
father "good-night," he whispered, "Papa, I'm 
very glad that sister has the doll. I did kill the 
dragon!" 

IV. Be strong for work. Hag. 2 : 4 ; Zech. 8 : 9. 
Each one with their own heart right and full of 
zeal, with God on their side, can do something. 
A little girl who wanted to do all she could to 
make the world better, was once buying some candy, 
and standing next to her was a little boy eating 
something with great relish. Seeing the girl had 
a wintergreen stick he said: "Why don't you get 
this kind, it's tip-top, just taste?" She tasted and 
made a face at which the boy laughed. "It's liquor," 
she said excitedly, "you ought not to touch it." 
For she had been taught that liquor was deadly poi- 
son. A determined look came to the sweet little 
face and she said to the man in charge : " I will 
never buy anything more from you if you sell 
those; you are making drunkards." "Well, my 
child, we have ten times more trade in those than 
you bring us." Nellie went out, but she could 
not dismiss this dreadful thing from her mind. 
She thought out a plan, and wrote on a paper a 
protest against the sale of the brandy candies. 
She then carried the paper all through the differ- 
ent streets in the neighborhood, and to all the peo- 
ple who furnished trade to the candy store, and 
obtained nearly every name to her paper. The 
paper said plainly to this man that unless he 



36 B STRONG. 

would give up selling brandy candies, the whole 
neighborhood would withdraw their trade, and 
that of their children. Nellie was nothing but 
a weak little girl, but when she presented this 
paper to the seller of liquor in the form of candy, 
he was obliged to empty out all of it, with a 
promise to sell no more. We can all be strong 
to do some good work if we remember that we 
have God and the right on our side. 

V. Be strong in faith. Ro. 4: 20. A little 
boy of eight years begged a lady to allow him to 
clear away the snow from her walk. He had 
neither father nor mother, and was anxious to get 
any work he could do. 

"Do you get much to do, my little boy?" 
said the lady. 

''Sometimes I do," said the boy, "but often I 
get very little." 

" And are you not afraid that you will not 
get enough to live on?" 

The little fellow said with a puzzled look on 
his face : " Why, don't you think God will take 
care of a boy if he puts his faith in Him and does 
the best he can?" 

VI. Be strong in grace. 2 Til 2: 1. No one 
can truly be strong who willingly allows one sin, 
however small. 

John and Alex were putting up a swing in 
the barn. They had what looked like a stout 
rope, but Jonas came and said it would not do. 



B STRONG. 37 

• 4 There's one weak place in it," he said, " and 
it would not be safe to use it." 

" But that is such a small place, and the rest 
of it is so strong!" said Alex. 

44 Have you never heard, boys, that a rope or 
a chain is only as strong as its weakest place? It 
is only worth what it will stand, and it won't stand 
more than that weak place will bear. Don't you 
see how that one spot makes the whole of it 
weak?" 

This is true in other things besides ropes and 
chains. The boy and girl who tell lies, or are 
dishonest, or unfaithful, are only as strong as the 
weak place in their lives, and if they do not 
strengthen that weak place by putting away the 
sin they will break some day and be ruined, and 
perhaps ruin some one else. 

A little boy strolling through the fields with 
his sister, found a rabbit's nest. The boy seized 
the little rabbits and began to torment them, 
mimicking their squeaks, and laughing at their 
struggles. His sister begged him to let them 
alone, and wept at his cruelty ; but he flung them 
up into the air, and shouted as each fell dead on 
the stones. 

Ten years afterward, that sister sat weeping 
by her brother's side, He was in prison, sentenced 
to be hung for shooting a farmer, whilst hunting 
on forbidden ground; and they were waiting for 
the officers to take him away to execution. 

44 Sister," said he, 44 do you remember the 



38 B STRONG. 

nest of rabbits, ten years ago? how you begged 
and I ridiculed? If I had yielded to your tears 
then, you and I would not be weeping these 
bitter tears now." 
Our Prayer — 

" Strength for to-day, Father, strength for to-day, 
Strength to be holy, to walk in Thy way ; 
Strength for the keeping my robes undefiled, 
Strength to be humble, as seemeth Thy child. 

44 Strength in temptation to turn from the snare, 
Strength to be constant and earnest in prayer; 
Patient in well doing, faithful in heart, 
Never, O Lord, from Thy truth to depart. 

14 Strength for the crosses Thou giv'st me to bear, 
Resting my heart on Thy Fatherly care, 
Trusting, although I may not understand; 
Knowing that Thou all my goings hast planned. 

44 Strength to shun evil, to cleave to the right, 
Strength that my rush light burn clearly and bright; 
Strength that I bring no reproach on Thy name; 
'Looking to Jesus,' Thy promise I claim. 

44 Still be Thou near me, whatever betide, 
Let me not wander away from Thy side; 
In life or in death be Thou with me alway, \ 
Strength for to-day, Father, strength for to-day." 



pifth Bible B. 
B Obediept. 

"Servants, be obedient to theni that are your masters." 
Eph. 6:5. 

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord; fortius is riglit." 
Eph. 6:1. 

"For to this end also did I write, that I might know the 
proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things." 2 Cor. 2: 9. 

" Turn to the Lord be obedient to His voice." Deu. 4 : 30. 

Mark a big B on the margin with blue. 

11 The first commandment with promise," was 
one for obedient children. Eph. 6:1, 2. 

Three little missionaries were all ready to go 
on a picnic, when one of them was taken violently 
ill, having been poisoned. Mrs. Fuller and the 
children knelt to pray that she might be healed. 
The little one prayed, adding, " And dear Jesus, 
if you do not want me to go to the picnic it is all 
right." The Lord heard and healed the child, 
and they had their picnic, but the happiest of 
them all was the one who yielded her will and 
wanted Jesus to have His own way. 

Jesus loves all with tender compassion, but 
He has a peculiar love for those who do the will 
of God. He says of such, " The same is my 
brother, and my sister, and my mother." Mk. 3: 35 

God asks us to obey " for our good 



40 B OBEDIENT. 

always," Deu. 6: 24, because He loves us. One 
morning a little child, three years old, told by her 
father to shut the door, refused to obey for the 
first time. He repeated the command ; still she 
refused. He slapped her gently, but she would 
not move. Feeling now that she must be made to 
obey or she would grow up to be a wicked woman, 
he brought a tiny switch and punished her severe- 
ly, but to no. purpose. Her mother coaxed her 
and then whipped her, but could not move her. 
Then they decided that she must remain by the 
door until she closed it. She would do anything 
they said, but shut the door. At noon they told 
her to shut the door and go with them to dinner, 
but she would not. All the afternoon she did not 
yield. She would say she was hungry and sleepy 
and tired, but she would not shut the door. At 
last, at six o'clock, having stood eight hours, she 
decided to obey, and shut the door with a slam. 
Then with a happy face she ran to her father and 
said, " I did papa; I shut it just as hard as I 
could." Her will was completely broken and 
after that she was ever willing to obey and grew 
to be a good and useful woman. 

A little boy, fitted out in his first pair of pants, 
was sent out to the factory to show them to his 
father. As the little fellow stood there the father's 
impulse was to go and take him in his arms, but 
he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit in his heart 
say, " Send that child back to his mother." 
Instantly and earnestly the father said to the child, 



B OBEDIENT. 41 

" Go right back to thy mother." The child 
quietly obeyed, and had hardly left the place 
where he was standing, when a large, heavy cask, 
overhead, fell directly on the spot where the 
little boy had stood. Had he stayed there it would 
have crushed the life out of him. 

But he was safe, thanks to his prompt obedi- 
ence to his father and thanks to the father's 
prompt obedience to the Lord's voice in his 
heart. 

Our heavenly Father says to us all, " Obey 
them that have the rule over you, and submit 
yourselves." He. 13; 17. 

A Boston paper tells how a young girl was 
crossing the Public Garden one winter morning, on 
the main path over the bridge. A magnificent mas- 
tiff strode along beside her in the most compan- 
ionable sort of way, looking up into her face as if 
to remark that it was a very fine morning or to 
ask if there was anything he could do for her. 

The two crossed the bridge, and finally came 
to the Charles street gate. Here the young girl, 
not wishing to have the care of the dog in the 
busy streets, turned to him and said: — 

" There, that is far enough now, Marco. You 
need not go with me any farther, but turn and go 
home." 

She did not take her hands out of her muff 
to point the way, and she spoke as she would to a 
small brother, in a pleasant voice. 

Marco looked at her with his large eyes, then 



42 B OBEDIENT 

looked across the common, wagging his tail 
slowly, as though he were thinking how pleasant 
it would be to go the rest of the way. Finally, he 
turned back to her again, and with a movement 
of his head and eyes, asked as plainly as 
though the words had come from his mouth, 
44 Please let me go a little farther, it is such a fine 
morning?" 

u No, dear : I am going shopping, you know," 
answered the girl, as if Marco were human. 
" There'll be crowds of people, and I shall not 
know what to do with you. But go along now, 
there's a good fellow, and I'll be back soon." 

Without another word, Marco turned and 
walked back across the gardens. He did not 
slink away, as some dogs do when sent back, but 
marched along with his head in the air. 

He stopped a moment on the bridge to watch 
the children skating below, then trotted on toward 
home. If a dog can be so obedient surely a boy 
and girl ought to be submissive. 

We submit to God and obey them that have 
the rule over us, when we do exactly what we are 
told. 

A merchant was once asked for employment 
by a tramp. " Yes," said the merchant, " I will 
give you work. Do you see that pile of stones? 
Take them up on your shoulder one by one, and 
lay them down in the north-east corner of my 
yard." The man went to work without a word, 
and when his task was done, came to the mer 



B OBEDIENT. 43 

chant asking, " What next?" " Take the same 
stones, one by one, and put them in the south- 
east corner of the yard." 

When this was done, he was told to take the 
same stones and put them in the north-west corner 
of the yard. That done he was told to put them 
in the south-west corner. 

Night had now come and the laborer presented 
himself for his pay. A sum of money was given 
him, and without a word he was turning away 
when the merchant cried, " Hold! You are the 
man for me. You did just what you were told 
without offering suggestions or asking questions. 
Come to-morrow and I will employ you as my 
workman." 

God is pleased when we do exactly as He 
bids us. 

The Word of God is His voice to us. 

A mother was reading to her three children. 
She came to a story of a naughty boy who had 
stolen apples from an orchard near his father's 
cottage. After reading part of the story, she 
paused to ask a few questions. 

"William," she said, "why ought we not to 
do as this naughty boy did? Why ought we not 
to steal apples?" 

14 Oh!" replied William, "because they do not 
belong to us." 

" What do you say, Robert?" 

44 Because if they caught us they would send 
us to prison." 



44 B OBEDIENT. 

" Now, Mary, it is your turn. Dear, why 
ought we not to steal?" 

" Because," said little Mary, " God says we 
mustn't." 

11 Right, love," said her mother ; "that is the 
best reason that can be given. What God com- 
mands we are bound to do, and what he forbids 
we are bound to leave undone. 'Thou shalt not 
steal' are His own words. If you are ever asked 
why you should not do what is wrong, let your 
answer be the same as the one you have given 
me — 'Because God says we mustn't.' " 

Sometimes the Holy Spirit in our hearts 
whispers to us and tells us what is right. 

A little girl was told by her mother to come 
straight home from school. She was sorely 
tempted by her playmates to go rowing for some 
water-lilies, but hurried from her companions to 
her home. 

She ran in and kissed her mother and was so 
bright that her mother asked, " Darling, why are 
you so happy?" "Oh, mamma," the child said, 
"you know you told me to come straight home 
from school, and I did so want to go on the lake 
for lilies, but something in me kept saying, 'Don't 
go, don't go,' and I minded that voice, and now I 
feel so happy right where I heard the voice say- 
ing, 'Don't go.' " 

Yes, to obey is to be happy and it is to be 
like Jesus. 

We read that " He learned obedience by 



B OBEDIENT. 45 

the things which He suffered." Heb. 5: 8. That 
day in the Temple when He wanted so much to 
be "about His Father's business," and His parents 
"understood not the saying which He spake unto 
them," He put away His own desire and "went 
down to Nazareth and was subject to them." Lu. 
2: 49-51. 

It was hard not to have His very own mother 
understand Him and He suffered, but He obeyed. 
I want to be like Him. Don't you? 

Our Prayer — 
Heavenly Father, Teach us Thy will. 
Make us like Jesus. 
Help us to obey like Him. 
Help us to love like Him. 
Help us to live like Him. 

For Thy name's sake. Amen. 



Sixth Bible B. 
B Kind. 

"Be ye kind one to another." Eph. 4 : 32. 

Mark with blue [ ] 

Kind comes from kin. So do kindness and 
kindred. Kin means a relative, one of the same 
family, one of the same kind or race. We are 
kind to our kindred. We should be just as kind 
to every stranger, every human being, who needs 
it, as we are to our own kin,. our very own. This 
is what Jesus taught us by the story of the good 
Samaritan, Lu. 10 : 30-37. It was a poor Jew who 
was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell 
among thieves, and they stripped him of his cloth- 
ing and wounded him and went away and left him 
by the roadside half-dead. And two Jews, peo- 
ple of his own nation, came that way and would 
not help him but passed by on the other side. 
But a certain Samaritan, a man of another race, 
whom the Jews despised, came where the wounded 
man was and had compassion on him, and went to 
him and bound up his wounds, and put him on his 
own horse and walked beside him, and took him 
to a hotel and cared for him all night, and when 
he went away he paid the hotel-keeper to take 



B KIND. 47 

care of him and promised to come back again 
some day. The Samaritan was as kind to the 
Jewish stranger as if he had been his own kin. 

One of our daily papers told how surprised 
the newsboys and shiners around the Post Office 
were one day to see Limpy Tim come among 
them in a quiet way, and say : " Boys, I want to 
sell you my kit. Here's two brushes, a hull box 
of blacking, a good stout box, and the outfit goes 
for two shillin's." " Goin' away, Tim?" inquired 
one. "Not 'xactly, but I want a quarter the 
awfulest kind just now." " Goin' on a 'scursion?" 
asked another. " Not to-day, but I must have a 
quarter," he answered. One of the boys passed 
over the change and took the kit, and Tim walked 
straight to the counting room of a daily paper, 
and put his money down and said, " I guess I kin 
write it if you'll give me a pencil." With slow- 
moving fingers he wrote a death notice. It went 
into the paper almost as he wrote it. It read : 
" Died — Litul Teo> — of scarlet fever — aiged three 
years. Funeral to-morrow ; gone up to heaven ; 
left won bruther." 

" Was it your brother?" asked the cashier. 
Tim tried to brace up, but he couldn't. The 
big tears came, the chin quivered, and he pointed 
to the notice on the counter, and gasped : " I — 
had to sell my kit to do it, but he had his arms 
around my neck when he died." 

He hurried home, but the news went to the 
crowd of boys, and they gathered in a group and 



48 B KIND. 

talked. Tim had not been home an hour before a 
boy left the kit he had sold on his door-step, and 
with it a bouquet of flowers, bought by pennies the 
crowd of big-hearted boys had given. They were 
as kind to Limpy Tim as if he had been their 
own brother. 

There is a story of two little boys playing 
church. " Eddie," said Harry, " I'll be a minis- 
ter and preach you a sermon." 

" All right," said Eddie ; " I'll be the people." 

Harry began, " My text is a short and easy 
one — 'Be kind' There are some texts in the 
Bible on purpose for little children, and this is 
one of them. There are a great many heads to 
my sermon. 

"First'. Be kind to papa and don't make a 
noise when he has a headache. 

" Second'. Be kind to mamma, and don't 
make her tell you to do a thing more than once. 

" Third'. Be kind to baby." 

" You have leaved out 'Be kind to Harry,'" 
interrupted Eddie. 

" Yes," said Harry, u but you will be kind to 
me if you are kind to all the others, because you 
will forget to be unkind. I was saying be kind to 
baby, and lend her your red soldier when she 
wants it. 

"Fourth'. Be kind to Jane, and don't kick 
and scream when she washes you." 

Here Eddie looked a little ashamed and said, 
" But she pulled my hair with the comb." 



B KIND. 49 

11 People mustn't talk in meeting," said Harry. 

44 Fifth : Be kind to kitty. Do what will 
make her purr, and not what will make her cry." 

" O Harry!" cried Eddie, "don't preach any 
more, 'cause I will always be kind now." 

I. To be kind is to be help fill. One Sunday 
morning a little boy was crossing Lafayette 
Square, the most beautiful park in Washington, 
the capital of our United States. 

He wore the blue uniform of the District Mes- 
senger boys, and was lugging with both hands a 
basket of potted palms and roses. 

He was a pathetic figure, and every one in 
the park was noticing him. He at last set the 
basket down and looked at it helplessly. 

" Tired out, are you, my boy?" came a friend- 
ly voice from behind him. The messenger 
looked up at a distinguished-looking man, and said, 

44 Yes, sir." 

11 Have you far to go?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Well, I am going your way; I can help you a 
bit," and the gentleman picked up the basket and 
carried it some distance, the little chap trudging 
along at his side. As they walked along, the boy 
told who he was and where he lived and asked 
the man who was kind to him where he lived. 

"Just across the street from where I met 
you," was the answer as the gentleman slipped a 
coin in the boy's hand, " in that white house 
opposite Lafayette Park." 



50 B KIND. 

Yes, it was really a President of the United 
States, I wish I knew which, who so kind])- car- 
ried the flower boy's basket. 

II. To be kind is to do good. Ro. 12: 13; He. 
13: 16; Tit. 3:8. A few years ago, in one of our 
large cities, a ten-year-old boy pulling a heavy 
cart loaded with boards, became exhausted, and 
dropped down under a tree and fell asleep. His 
pale, pinched face told the passers-by how poor 
and desolate his home was. A queer old man, 
with a saw on his arm, stopped to rest for a 
moment under the same shade. He must have 
known what it was to be hungry, for he took a 
piece of bread and meat from his pocket — the 
lunch that he had meant to eat if he found work — 
and laid it beside the sleeping lad. There were 
those who saw him and their hearts were touched 
with sympathy. One man laid a half dollar 
beside the poor man's bread. A woman replaced 
the torn hat with a good one. A little girl brought 
a pair of shoes, and a boy a coat and vest. Passers- 
by halted, and whispered, and dropped dimes and 
quarters beside the first silver piece. The child 
woke suddenly with a start as if it were a crime 
to sleep. As he looked at the good things, and 
the people, and saw what it meant, he sat down 
and covered his face with his hands and sobbed 
aloud. In all his short life, no one had ever 
been so kind to him. 

III. To be kind is to be generous. Deu. 15:8. 
A lady who is homely and. not at all rich, has 



B KIND. 51 

a habit of giving pennies and five-cent pieces to 
the poor children as she walks daily through one 
of the slum streets of the city. 

One day she saw a little, ragged boy with his 
face pressed close to a pane of glass, gazing at 
the toys in the window. His hands were loosely 
clasped behind his back, with the palms turned 
upward. She noticed the little, earnest face, 
quietly dropped a few coppers into the little 
hands, and passed on. 

The moment the boy felt their touch he 
turned and caught sight of the purse in the hand 
of the lady. Running after her, he looked up 
anxiously into her face, and said : "Oh, ma'am! 
did you know it was me?" 

He thought she had mistaken him for some 
little friend. 

" Yes," said the lady smiling, " I knew that it 
was you ;" and the child bounded away with a 
face bright with joy. He thought she was a beau- 
tiful lady. How nice it would be if all the well- 
to-do children would follow the example of this 
lady and put away some of their pennies for the 
poor little ones. 

IV. To be ki?id is to be forgiving. " Pansy" 
tells a lovely story about a great, splendid 
dog, whose name was Dee. The boys and girls 
in Mr. Graham's family loved him. He was 
always with them, and took care of the young- 
est more faithfully than the older sister did; 
for she sometimes " forgot" and ran away from 



52 B KIND. 

the little feet that were trying to follow her; but 
Dee never forgot. 

One morning all the Graham children were 
cross; nothing went right : Harry got Arthur's 
shoes instead of his own, and pulled off one of the 
buttons, and Arthur said he did it on purpose, and 
he wished he would let him alone. And Harry 
said he didn't care; there was no sense in being 
so cross about such a little thing; and he shouldn't 
play with Arthur at all that day. 

The trouble became so serious that the mother 
had to come and quiet the boys. After that they 
looked crossly at each other, and had a hard morn- 
ing. Just before noon as Harry was tormenting 
Dee, he rolled over the old fellow and hurt him. 
Dee howled and ran to the other end of the hall. 
Then Mother Graham, who had been very patient, 
called Harry into the dining-room, and told him 
to sit on a chair the rest of the morning. 

Arthur, who had followed his brother, was 
pleased at this and thought Harry got what he 
deserved. Dee followed, too. 

What did he do but walk gravely across the 
room, passing Arthur who tried to coax him to 
play, and hold up his fore-paw to Harry to shake 
hands and be friends. This was too much for 
Harry ; he burst out laughing, and it was impossi- 
ble for mother and Arthur not to join. 

" Good fellow!" said Mrs. Graham, u he wants 
to show you that he can forgive and forget." 

"Arthur," said Harry, after he had shaken 



B KIND. 53 

hands with the dog-, " I did not mean to pull off 
your shoe-buttons this morning; I honestly didn't 
know it was your shoe." 

M I know it," said Arthur, 44 and I didn't mean 
to be so cross about it." 

44 Neither did I," declared Harry: 44 let's for- 
give and forget;" and Dee wagged his tail, and the 
boys shook hands and kissed their mother, and 
the trouble was over. 

V. To be kind is to do as yoii would be do?ie br, 
Mat. 5 : 44; 7 : 12; I Th. 5: 15. 

One cold morning a little old man stood on 
the corner of a street, selling newspapers. He 
was thinly clad, and his voice was hoarse from 
cold, and the passers-by could hardly hear him. 

Some boys jeered and laughed at him, but 
one, better dressed than the rest, walked up to 
him and said, 44 1 will shout for you." 

Then the boy began to call out : " Times, 
Herald, Tribune, News," in a clear voice, which 
attracted so many customers that in a little while 
the old man sold his stock. 

He offered to pay his youthful partner, but 
the boy would take nothing, and went off with a 
smiling face. 

He had done what he would have liked any 
one to do for him if he had been old and poor 
and cold. 

Our Prayer. — Blessed Lord, help us always 
to be kind and loving and forgiving to each other 
for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Seventh Bible B. 
B Content. 

"Be content with such things as ye liave : for He hath said, 
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He. 13:5. 

"Having food and raiment let us he...content." 1 Ti. 6 : 8. 

"I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be 
content." Phil. 4:11. 

Mark with yellow or gold. 

To be content is to 

I. Be satisfied with what you have. A blind 
fruit-vender who used to repine when sales 
were small, was converted in the mission of J. 
Alex. Dowie. Soon after, as he came home one 
evening, his wife asked, "What kind of a day 
have you had, John?" He only laughed and said, 
"The kind of a day our Father wanted me to have. 
The business is His now, and if He wants a poor 
day I've nothing to grumble about." 

"I wish you a good day," a minister said to 
a peasant. "Thank you sir," said the poor man, 
"every day is a good day to me, for God sends it." 

II. Make tlie best of circumstances. Two little 
street-beggars, one bitter cold night, crept under 
an old door. Instead of mourning over their 
misery, one said to the other. "Oh, Pete, what do 
you s'pose the folks do who hain't got any door?" 

One cold March day a little Italian girl, shiv- 



B CONTENT. 55 

ering in her rags, stood selling apples at her little 
stand. A gentleman said, as he passed a cent to 
her for the apple he had bought, "How can you 
stand here this cold day?" "Ah, yes, it is cold, 
but think of by and by, when the sun comes out, 
and the flowers bloom," was the quick reply. 
These little ones could not change the weather, 
so they made the best of it. 

III. Be happy with things or without things. A 
little boy had broken his handsome arrow and 
came to mamma to have it mended. His lip 
quivered a little and tears came into his eyes, as 
he saw his broken toy. 4 T will try to fix it, dar- 
ling," said his mamma, "but I am afraid I cannot 
do it." He watched her anxiously for a few min- 
utes and then said cheerfully: 

"Never mind, mamma; if you can't fix it, I 
will be just as happy without it." 

IV. Be happy anywhere. Soon after the Ocean 
Monarch was wrecked in the English Channel, 
another steamer was slowly sailing through the 
darkness. The Captain heard a sweet song coming 
over the water. They bore down toward the sound 
of the voice and found a woman on a plank of the 
wrecked vessel singing: 

" Jesus, Lover of my soul, 
Let me to Thy bosom fly; 
While the waters nearer roll, 
While the tempest still is high." 

Though she was wet and cold and hungry, her 
heart was happy, for she had learned to be con- 



56 B CONTENT. 

tent. She could not understand why God should 
let one of His children be wrecked, but she could 
trust and sing. God meant to use her little song 
to teach you and me not to find fault, but to sing 
when the troubles come. Anybody can sing when 
the sun shines; God wants His children to sing in 
the darkness. 

Here is a beautiful parable on Contentment I 
picked up somewhere: 

A tiny blue violet lay blossoming at the foot 
of a great oak tree. One day the oak said to the 
violet: "Are you not ashamed of yourself when 
you look up at me, you little thing down there, 
when you see how large I am and how small you 
are; when you see how small a space you fill, and 
how wide my branches are spread?" 

"No," said the violet, "we are both where God 
has placed us; and God has given us both some- 
thing. He has given to you strength, to me sweet- 
ness; and I offer Him back my fragrance, and I 
am thankful." 

"Sweetness is all nonsense," said the oak; "a 
few days — a month at most — where and what will 
you be? You will die, and the place of your grave 
will not lift the ground higher by a blade of grass. 
I hope to stand some time — ages, perhaps — and 
then, when I am cut down, I shall be a ship to 
bear men over the sea, or a coffin to hold the dust 
of a prince. What is your lot to mine?" 

"But," said the violet, "we are both what God 
made us, and where He placed us. I suppose I 



B CONTENT 57 

shall die soon. I hope to die fragrantly, as I have 
lived. You must be cut down at last; it does not 
matter, that I see, a few days or a few ages, my 
littleness, or your largeness, it comes to the same 
thing at last. We are what God made us. We 
are where God placed us. God gave you strength; 
God gave me sweetness." 

V. " Content is a crown." Good Cheer tells a 
true story of a lady whose life was changed by the 
finding of a ring. Up to the time of finding it, 
she had been moody and unhappy. Filled with 
gloomy thoughts she wandered one afternoon to 
the garden. Stepping aside to uproot an ugly 
weed she threw it over the fence. As she did so 
she caught a glitter of gold. Climbing over the 
fence she found a heavy gold ring fastened to the 
roots, and inside the ring this device: "Content is 
a crown." 

The lady took the lesson to her heart and be- 
came one of the sweetest, sunniest women in the 
world. The house and garden were upon ground 
that had been a battle-field in the Revolution, and 
this ring had probably been upon the finger of 
some English officer slain upon the field. The 
hand that wore the ring had crumbled into dust, 
leaving it free for the roots to clasp, and bring its 
message where it was so needed. 

A little German boy kept his sheep in a lovely 
valley, and used to sing until the hills echoed back 
his voice One morning the king, out hunting, said 
to him: "Why are you so happy, dear little one?" 



58 B CONTENT. 

"Why shall I not be?" he answered; "our king 
is not happier than I." 

"Indeed!" said the king; "tell me of your great 
possessions." 

The lad answered: "The sun shines as brightly 
upon me as upon the king. The flowers on the 
mountains and the grass in the valley gladden my 
sight as well as his. I would not take a hundred 
thousand thalers for my hands. My eyes are of 
more value than all the precious stones in the 
world. I have food and clothing, too. Am I not 
as rich as the king?" 

"You are right," said the king, with a laugh; 
"but your greatest treasure is a contented heart; 
keep it so, and you will always be happy." 

The king's advice is a good word for us. 
Keep your heart contented and you will always 
be happy. 

A bishop who was contented and cheerful 
through a long period of trial, and asked the 
secret of his contentment, said, "I will tell you. 
I make a right use of my eyes." "Please explain." 
"Most willingly," was the answer: "First I look 
up to Heaven and remember that my principal 
business is to get there. Then I look down upon 
the earth and think how small a space I shall oc- 
cupy when I am dead and buried. Then I look 
around and see the many who are in all respects 
much worse; off than I am. Then I learn where 
true happiness lies, where all our cares end, and 
how little reason I have to complain." 



B CONTENT. 59 

VI. We may well be content for we always have 
Jesus. 

"I will never leave thee/' is one of the prom- 
ises that runs through all the Bible. It was given 
first in kindness to naughty Jacob just after he had 
gone away from home. Lying alone in the mid- 
night darkness, with only the stars for comfort, 
and stones for his couch, he dreamed that he saw 
a ladder which reached to Heaven and angels 
going up and down on it. And the Lord stood 
above it and said: "I will not leave thee." Ge. 
28: 15. 

When Moses was about to go away and leave 
Israel, who had loved him so and looked up to 
him, God told him to say to them: "The Lord. . . 
will not fail thee nor forsake thee." Deu. 31:6. 

And when Joshua shrank from taking Moses' 
place and going out to fight the Canaanites, God 
said: u As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; 
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Josh. 1 : 5. 

And when Solomon had to build the beautiful 
temple and trembled at the great work which lay 
before him, His father David said to him, kk Fear 
not nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my 
God, will be with thee; He will not fail thee, nor 
forsake thee." 1 Ch. 28: 20. 

So lest we should worry, like Jacob, when we 
do wrong; or grieve, like Israel, when our friends 
are taken from us; or fear, like Joshua, when we 
have to fight sin; or tremble, like Solomon, when 
the work seems too great for us, God told Paul to 



60 B CONTENT. 

write to us: "Be content with such things as ye 
have: for He hath said: I will never leave thee nor 
forsake thee." He. 13: 5. For when we worry or 
grieve, or fear, or tremble, it shows that we are 
not content. 

Our Prayer: Blessed Lord, help us to be 
satisfied with what You give us, to be happy with 
things or happy without things, and contented 
anywhere. Help us to remember that You have 
said: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 



Eighty Bible B. 
B A Iiight 

"Be a light," Ao. 13:47. 

"Shine as lights," Phil. 3:15. 

"Walk as children of light," Eph. 5 : 8. 

Mark with a yellow pencil or gold ink. 

Look at Jno. 5: 35 and find the name of one 
whom Jesus said was a burning and shining light, 
and write it neatly in ink just here 

As the light in the material world comes from 
the sun, so the light of the spiritual world is all 
from Jesus. He is "the Light of the world," Jno. 
9: 5, and the light we have is just a reflection of 
his. Jno. 8: 12. 

A little girl read slowly in her Bible: " Ye are 
the light of the world," Mat. 5, 14. She looked up 
at her mother and said: " I don't know what that 
means, mamma." Mamma smiled and asked: 
" Was Tommy Brown at school yesterday?" 

" Yes, mamma, and he gave me a big red apple. 
I like him a great deal better than I used to. He 
isn't cross any more, and he doesn't get angry and 
fight the boys either." 

"Does he trouble you little girls any more?" 

"Oh, mother! not a bit. He told us he was 
sorry, and wasn't going to do so any more," 



62 B A LIGHT. 

44 What has changed him so, Ruthie?" 
" Why mamma, you know he has become a 
Christian. He joined the church last Sunday." 

44 What was your verse, Ruthie?" The little 
girl read again: 44 Ye are the light of the world." 
44 Who was talking, Ruth?" 
44 Jesus." 

44 Who does he say is the light of the world?" 
Ruth studied the chapter. 44 4 Ye.' Itsays 4 ye.'" 
41 Read the first two verses, dear." 
"O, it was His disciples! It says so." 
44 Yes, He told the disciples they were the light 
of the world. What is light for?" 

44 To — to — why, to make things clear, to show 
things." 

44 And what should Christ's disciples show?" 
44 Show that they love him," said Ruth softly. 
44 Yes; and that loving Christ makes them 
kinder and better too." 

44 Yes," said Ruth. 44 It is so with Tommy. 
Everybody knows he is a better boy, and every- 
body says it is because he has become a Christian. 
I think he is a little light." 

Little Ruth was right. A good life is a clear, 
steady, bright beautiful light, throwing its beams 
out over this world of sin. 

Just as 44 the life" of Jesus 44 was the light of 
men," Jno. 1 : 4, so the life of a dear child who 
follows Him is a light to show others the right 
way. There is a sweet story of a little kitchen- 



B A LIGHT. 63 

girl, named Georgia Willis. She was rubbing a 
rust} r knife one day, singing: 

"In this world is darkness; 

So we must shine, 
You in your small corner, 

And I in mine." 

Mary, the cook, said: "What do you rub at 
them knives for ever for?" 

11 Because they are in my corner," Georgie said 
brightly. "'You in your small corner,' you know, 
' and I in mine.' I'll do the best I can, that's all I 
can do." 

"I wouldn't waste my strength," said Mary. 
u No one will notice." 

"Jesus will," said Georgia, and then she sang 
again. 

"You in your small corner, 
And I in mine." 

u This steak is my corner, I 'suppose," said 
Mary to herself. "If that child must do what she 
can, Is'pose I must. If He knows about knives it's 
likely He does about steak," and she broiled it 
beautifully. 

" Mary, the steak was nicely done to-day," 
Miss Emma said. 

"That's all along of Georgia," said Mary, 
pleased, and then she told about the knives. 

Miss Emma was ironing ruffles; she was tired 
and warm. "Helen will not care whether they 
are fluted nicely or not." she said; "I'll hurry 
them over;" but after she heard about the knives 



64 B A LIGHT. 

she did her best. " How beautifully my dress is 
done," Helen said ; and Emma laughingly answered, 
"That is owing to Georgia;" and then she told 
about the knives. 

" No," said Helen to her friend, who urged, " I 
really cannot go to the concert this evening. I am 
going to prayer-meeting; my corner is there." 

"Your corner! What do you mean?" Then 
Helen told about the knives. 

"Well," the friend said. " If you will not go 
with me perhaps I will with you," and they went 
to the prayer-meeting. 

44 You helped us ever so much with the singing 
this evening," their pastor said to them as they 
were going home. 44 1 was afraid you wouldn'tbe 
there." 

4 Tt was owing to our Georgia," said Helen; 
"she seemed to think she must do what she could, 
if it were only knives." Then she told him the 
story. 

44 1 believe I will go in here again," said the 
minister, stopping before a poor little house. 4 T 
said yesterday there was no use but I must do what 
I can." In the house a sick man was lying; 
again and again the minister had called, and he 
wouldn't listen to him; but to-night he said, 44 1 
have come to tell you a little story " Then he 
told him about Georgia Willis, about her knives, 
and her little corner, and her 44 doing what she 
could, out of love for the Savior," and the sick 
man wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "I'lj 



B A LIGHT. 65 

find my corner too; I'll try to shine for Him." 
The sick man was Georgia's father. Jesus look- 
ing down at her that day said: "She hath done 
what she could," and He gave the blessing. 

"I believe I won't go to walk," said Helen, 
hesitating. "I'll finish that dress of mother's; I 
suppose I can if I think so." 

"Why, child, are you here sewing?" her 
mother said; "I thought you had gone to walk!" 

"No, mother, this dress seemed to be in my 
corner, so I thought I would finish it." 

"In your corner?" her mother repeated in 
surprise, and then Helen told about the knives, 
The door-bell rang, and the mother went thought- 
fully to receive her pastor. "I suppose I could 
give more," she said to herself as she slowly took 
out the ten dollars that she had laid aside for mis- 
sions. "If that poor child in the kitchen is try- 
ing to do what she can, I wonder if I am? I'll 
make it twenty-five." 

And Georgia's guardian angel said to another 
angel, " Georgia Willis gave twenty-five dollars to 
our dear people in India to-day." 

"Twenty-five dollars!" said the other angel. 
"Why I thought she was poor!" 

"Oh, well, she thinks she is, but her Father 
in Heaven isn't, you know. She did what she 
could, and He did the rest," 

But Georgia never knew what a bright mes- 
senger she had been, and the next morning she 
brightened her knives and sang cheerily: 



66 B A LIGHT. 

"Jesus bids u; shine 

Tht-n or all around. 
Many kinds of darkness 

In this world abound: 
Sin and want and sorrow; 

So we must shine, 
You, in your small corner, 

And I in mine." 

The Bible is said to be a "lamp" to our feet 
and a "light" to our path, Ps. 119: 105, because it 
reveals to us the right way in which to walk. 

A little Christian girl used sometimes to go 
to sea with her father, who was captain of a ship. 
One day she sat on a coil of rope watching Jim 
clean the signal lamps. 

"What are you doing?" she asked. 

"I am trimming the signal lamps, Miss," said 
the old man. 

"What are they for?" asked Mary. 

"To keep other ships from running into us, 
Miss; if we do not hang out our lights we might 
be wrecked." 

Mary watched him for some time; then ran 
away and seemed to forget all about the signal 
lights; but she did not. The next day as she was 
watching the old man the wind carried away one 
of his cloths and he began to swear. Mary slip- 
ped from her place and ran into the cabin; but she 
soon came back and put a folded paper into his 
hand. 

Jim opened it, and there, printed in large let- 
ters — for Mary was too young to write — were 
these words: "Thou shalt not take the name of 



B A LIGHT. 67 

the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not 
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 
Ex. 20: 7. The old man asked: u What is this, 
Miss Mary?" 

" It is a signal light please. I saw that a bad 
ship was running against you because you did not 
have your signal lights out, so I thought you had 
forgotten," said Mary. 

Jim bowed his head and wept like a child. 
At last he said : '' You were right, missy, I had for- 
gotten it. My mother taught me that command- 
ment when I was no bigger than you; and for the 
future I will hang out my signal-lights." 

Old Jim has a large Bible, which Mary gave 
him, and on the cover he has painted, "Signal- 
lights for souls bound for heaven." 

Another word of Jesus to His disciples was, 
"Let your light so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works and glorify your Father 
which is in Heaven," Mat. 5: 16. 

The place to shine is in the dark. "The light 
shineth in darkness," Jno. 1: 5. As little Georgia 
Willis sang: 

'•In the world is darkness, 
So we must shine." 

"Grandma," said a little boy, "what have 
you been doing here at the window all day?" "All 
I could," said grandma cheerily. " I have read a 
little and prayed a good deal, and looked at the 
people. There's one little girl that I watch for. 
She has sunny hair; her eyes have the same sunny 



68 B A LIGHT 

look in them. I wonder what makes her look so 
bright. Ah! here she comes now." "That girl 
with the brown apron on?" he cried. "Why that's 
Susie Moore, and she has a dreadful hard time, 
grandma." " Has she?" said grandma. "O little 
boy, wouldn't you like to know where she gets all 
that brightness from then?" "I'll ask her," said 
Arthur promptly; and he raised the window and 
called, "Susie, O Susie, come here a minute; 
grandma wants to see you!" The brown eyes 
opened wide in surprise, but the little maid came 
in. "Grandma wants to know, Susie Moore," 
said the boy, " what makes you look so bright all 
the time." "Why I have to," said Susie; "you see 
papa's been sick a long while, and mamma is tired 
with nursing, and baby's cross with her teeth, and 
if I don't be bright, who would be?" "Yes, yes, I 
see," said grandma, putting her arm around this 
little streak of sunshine. "That's God's reason for 
things; they are because somebody needs them. 
Shine on, little sun; there could not be a better 
reason for shining than because it is dark at home." 
We begin to shine here and 'we shall shine for- 
ever i?i Heaven. A carriage-maker called his hands 
one Christmas eve and had a full settlement. He 
called back a boy and said, "Jerry, here is twenty 
dollars." "Why, boss, you paid me once." "I 
paid you for working, but this twenty dollar gold 
piece is for the smiles over your face all the year. 
Whatever I bid you do you always went about 
the task with a smile." 



B A LIGHT. 69 

We cannot all have beautiful features, but we 
can all have smiling faces, and God pays us double 
even for shining. He makes us happy here and 
promises that we shall shine as the sun and the 
stars forever in His kingdom, Mat. 13: 43; Da. 12:3. 

Our Prayer — 

"Just to shine for Jesus 

Every day. 
Just to sing His praises 

On my way; 
Just to shine for Jesus 

Everywhere. 
This, O blessed Savior, 

Is my prayer." 



JSlinth Bible B. 
B Affectionate. 

"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love." 
Bo. 12: 10. 

Draw a blue line under the texts. 

I. "Love one a?wther." Jno. 15: 17. Not 
only love your dear friends, your kindred, but 
love the poor and the stranger. One cold morn- 
ing a number of girls and boys gathered around 
the stove in a school-room. They talked and 
laughed, paying little heed to a new scholar who 
stood apart from the rest. The little girl had 
never been to school before and was shy and 
homesick. She wished she could fly home to 
mother and have a good cry. Just then the outer 
door flew open, and a bright-eyed girl rushed in. 
After saying u good-morning" to everybody, her 
eyes fell upon the new scholar. 

" Good-morning," she sweetly said. The lit- 
tle girl brightening said " Good-morning." " Cold 
isn't it?" the newcomer went on holding her red 
hands over the stove. Then she took from her 
pocket a fine red apple, split it in two and with a 
smile, passed half to the new scholar. " Do you 
like apples?" she said. " Very much." " My 
name is Libby," said the owner of the bright eyes; 



B AFFECTIONATE. Jl 

"what is yours?" " Hetty," replied the other lit- 
tle girl. ik Do you want to sit with me?" said 
Libby. Hetty would like that and the two girls 
went to find Libby's seat, where they chatted hap- 
pily till the bell rang. " Where is Hetty Rowe?" 
asked the teacher. Then she spied her seated 
next to the merry-faced Libby. The kind teacher 
smiled, saying: " I see you are in good hands," 
and Hetty kept the seat. Libby used to say it 
was her gift of half an apple that made Hetty 
her dear friend, but it was something beside the 
apple that comforted Hetty on that cold morning. 
Can you guess what it was? 

A tiny boy fell down stairs one day and in- 
jured his face so severely that for a long time he 
could not speak. When he did open his lips, it 
was in no complaint of pain. Looking up at his 
mother, he whispered, trying to smile: "I'm 
pretty glad 'twasn't my little sister!" Love rather 
suffers than see others suffer. 

II. Comfort one another. I Th. 4:18. A 
father was in a flood of tears. All was darkness 
and despair. His little four-year-old girl, climbing 
into his lap and putting her arms around his neck, 
asked: " Papa, what makes you cry so?" He 
replied: " Because it is so dark my child." Cling- 
ing close to him she said: " Isn't it light up where 
God is?" Her childish words lifted him out of 
his despair and showed him how to trust in Jesus 
and he was comforted. 

III. Consider one another. He. 10: 24. A 



72 B AFFECTIONATE. 

father, talking to his careless daughter, said: " I 
want to speak to you of your mother. It maybe 
that you noticed a careworn look on her face. I 
want you to get up to-morrow morning and get 
breakfast. When your mother comes and begins 
to express her surprise, go right up to her and 
kiss her on the mouth. You can't imagine how 
it will brighten her dear face. 

44 Besides, you owe her a kiss or two. Away 
back, when you were a little girl, she kissed you 
when no one else was tempted by your fever- 
tainted breath and swollen face. Through years 
of childish sunshine and shadow she was always 
ready to cure, by the magic of a mother's kiss, 
the dirty, chubby hands whenever they were in- 
jured in those first skirmishes with the rough old 
world." I do not know whether this daughter 
heeded her father's words or not, but I hope the 
daughter who is reading this will heed them. 

IV. Serve one another. Ga. 5: 13; He. 6: 
10; 1 Th. 1: 3. Jennie's mamma gave her five 
cents to buy some buns for her lunch. Jennie 
was hungry and oh! how glad she felt to see the 
baker put the five hot buns into the bag and to 
think they were all hers; how good they would 
taste! As she came out of the shop she saw gaz- 
ing into the window a little ragged girl, with a 
shawl over her head. How hungry she looked! 
44 1 think she is hungrier than I am," Jennie said, 
and she opened her bag and gave the hungrier 
girl three of her buns. Have you ever been hun- 



B AFFECTIONATE. 73 

gry for love, for sympathy, for help, as well as for 
food? Perhaps you have, just a little, but there 
are those who are so much hungrier, who every 
day need your help, whom you can serve by giv- 
ing bread and love and sympathy. 

We show our love by our labor. There is a 
sweet story of the little grandson of Charles X. of 
France, when he was only six years old. Like 
many other robust children, he disliked lessons 
and particularly writing. His copy-books were 
blotted and scrawled to his father's great displeas- 
ure and the despair of his tutor. But the child 
was merry, asked pardon in engaging tones, made 
good resolutions, and the writing-master could 
not long be grave. 

One morning the child's playfulness failed to 
rouse his tutor from a settled sorrow; there were 
even tears in the old man's eyes. After lessons 
the boy learned from a servant that his tutor 
had a large sum of money to pay because his bad 
son had gotten into debt and he saw no way of 
getting the money. 

When the royal family were at breakfast, the 
little duke said, "' Grandfather, if I write well for 
a whole week, will you give me something?" 
u Yes." u Will you give me fifty louis?" " That 
is a great deal of money," said the king. "What 
will you do with it?" "That is my secret," said 
the child; Charles X. smiled and promised. 

The next morning the boy sat with his copy- 
book at a window overlooking the Tuileries. The 



74 B AFFECTIONATE. 

birds sang, the tame pigeons came and perched 
on the window-sill, merry children played under 
the trees, but for once he neither heard nor saw 
any of them, and wrote a whole copy without 
mistake or blot. The tutor was astonished, 
and his amazement increased when his pupil's 
careful industry continued a week. No sooner 
was the last page finished than he took his copy- 
book to his grandfather, and in a few minutes 
returned, carrying in both hands the bag contain- 
ing the fifty louis. His bright face was suffused 
with blushes as he gave it into the tutor's hands, 
saying, 

" Here is my wages. Please accept them. I 
only worked that I might give them to you." 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, we ask 
Thee to help us remember how Thou dost love us 
and to help us love one another, so that we shall 
comfort and consider one another and serve one 
another, all for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Tenth Bible B, 
B Sober. 

•'Let us watch and be sober." 1 Th. 5 : 6. 

"L.et us, who are of the day, be sober." 1 Th. 5 : 8. 

Mark with blue ( ) 

In these days we somehow always think of 
being sober in connection with Temperance. And 
our Bible in many places warns against intemper- 
ance. Solomon says, " Look not thou upon the 
wine." Pr. 23:31. 

A gentleman took his family out riding, and, 
as the day was warm, they were thirsty. They 
came near a hotel where whiskey was sold, and the 
father proposed to them to stop and get a dririk 
of water. His little boy, not quite four years old, 
quickly exclaimed: 

"No, sir, we can't go in there; don't you 
know we belong to the temperance school?" 

This little fellow was of the same opinion 
as a minister who said to his Sunday-school chil- 
dren, u Keep on the right side of the liquor shop 
and that is the outside." 

An old gentleman told a friend one day, " I 
pass a splendid liquor saloon every morning, and 
always see a pleasant-faced young man at the 
door, who calls to me with a friendly word. But 



76 B SOBER. 

I never answer — I only walk by the faster. If 1 
spoke he would speak again, and then I should 
have to stop, and turn towards the door and look 
in. And I don't consider it safe to look into a 
liquor store." 

If you would obey the command, "Look not 
upon the wine," do not waste one glance upon it. 
Do not put yourself in the way of temptation. 
Turn from it as positively as the little girl out 
driving with Miss Willard, who said, "Wicked 
old saloon, I'll try and not even look at the 
barrels." 

To be sober is to 

I. Live comfortably. Pr. 23:21. One evening 
in England a poor little child lifted her pale, 
pinched face sorrowfully to her mother and said, 
" Mamma, I'm so hungry." The mother knew by 
her own gnawing hunger how the little one was 
suffering, for she herself had not tasted food for 
forty-eight hours. She rose, went to the wooden 
cupboard and took a cold potato from the shelf, 
and put it into Mamie's hand. "That is every 
morsel there is in the house, child ; take it, and 
run over to the tavern, and see if you cannot get 
your father to come home. He will come for 
you, sometimes, you know." 

Mamie hurried away, for she had often been 
to the old-fashioned English country tavern and 
seen the landlord's wife frying the eggs and bacon, 
in the spider, over the fire, in the wide fireplace, 
and she thought how she would dip her potato 



B SOBER. 7J 

into the fat after the woman had taken out the 
bacon. 

As she went in, she caught sight of her father 
in a drunken slumber, and her earnest appeal that 
he should come home only half roused him from 
his stupor. So the little one waited for the meal 
to be served, and then went slyly to the spider, 
and dipped her potato in the hot gravy. 

"Get out!" the proprietor's wife said, pushing 
the child rudely aside. " Go and dip your tater in 
in yer own gravy." 

The father roused then. "What's all this?" 
he said. He had been a gentleman. Little seven- 
year-old Mamie could remember when they lived 
in a home where there were brussels carpets and 
lace curtains. But the drink had brought them 
down to the one room which had neither carpet 
nor curtains. 

"What's all this?" he repeated angrily, as he 
saw his little one's lips quiver. 

" I told the youngster to go home and dip 
her tater in her own gravy." 

The drunkard straightened himself. A look 
came into his eyes that the}' had never worn since 
the day, three years before, when house and fur- 
niture had been sold to pay the rumseller. 

"Come, Mamie," he said, catching the tiny 
young thing in his arms, "we will dip our taters 
in our own gravy." 

He was almost sober now. Going out he met 
a comrade face to face, who said: "Hi, John! 



78 B SOBER. 

ye're jist the one I'm a-wantin' to see. Here's 
the dollar I got from ye the day I was dead 
broke." 

11 Thank you kindly, Pat," he said, as he would 
have said it years before, had he met his com- 
panion in a drawing-room. "We'll surprise the 
mother," he added, gleefully, to the child. 

The mother — poor woman! — was kneeling by 
her bedside, with the tears raining down her face. 
It was the first time she had prayed since long 
ago, when she had lisped her baby-prayer beside her 
mother's knee. But she wailed out, "O God! 
give my husband back to me, and I will serve you 
forever!" While she knelt the door opened, and 
Mamie flew to her arms. 

u O mamma! here's papa, and we've got bread, 
butter, bacon and potatoes, and he's never going 
to drink any more." 

And the husband knelt beside her and whis- 
pered, "It's true, Mary; so help me God!" The 
help was given ; friends gathered about him, busi- 
ness prospered, and one day he led his wife and 
daughter back to their old home. As Mamie went 
gaily skipping from room to room, her father 
said: " My little daughter is happy?" And the 
girl looked slyly up into her sober father's face 
and said : " Yes, papa, I dip my taters in my own 
gravy now." 

II. Help others to reform. Pr. 23:20; Eph. 
5:18, R. V. In one of Miss Willard's meetings 
the pledge book was passed, and a little boy, who 



B SOBER. 79 

had listened attentively to all she said, took it in 
his chubby hands and printed his name and passed 
it to his grandmother. " Here, grandma, write 
your name right here under little Fred's ; you can't 
go back on your grandboy." "I never thought I 
should give up wine and sign a pledge," she said 
afterwards with tears in her eyes, "but there sat 
the dear boy holding up the pencil and book and 
I couldn't go back on my grandboy." 

III. Sigh the pledge. Jer. 35:6. Charles 
would not sign the pledge. He was drawn into 
temptation. The love for liquor overcame him and 
he went away from home and friends and indulged 
the appetite. Seeing the evil of this, he tried to 
break away from the habit, but in vain. One day, 
after controlling the appetite for some weeks, he 
sat at a hotel-table with a comrade and a young 
lady for whom he had great respect. The waiter 
said to his companion: "Will you have plum- 
pudding with wine-sauce?" "Yes," was the an- 
swer. Charles thought : "I too will take pudding 
with wine-sauce." But the young lady beside him 
said: "Pudding without wine-sauce, please," and 
before he knew it he had followed her example. 
Afterward he said to her : "You don't know what 
it meant to me to hear you say to-day at the din- 
ner table, 'Pudding without wine-sauce,"' And 
then he told her how when he was supposed to be 
from home on business he was hiding from his 
friends, an inebriate. Miss Willard being at the 
hotel the young lady called her, and the three 



80 B SOBER. 

knelt and prayed God to help Charles overcome 
the terrible habit, and persuaded him to sign the 
pledge. 

IV. Keep the pledge. Daniel would not defile 
himself with wine, Da. 1:8,12. Our Young Folks 
tells the following story : " Hallo! who are you?" 
asked one of Tom Mather's reapers of a seven- 
year-old boy. "I am papa's temperance pledge." 
" Is it you who keep us from having a drink of 
whiskey?" said a reaper. "Yes," laughed little 
Dick, "and I'll show you where papa signed me." 
The boy pulled down his collar and showed a 
white scar on his shoulder. "Yes, boys," said 
Tom, "the little fellow is my pledge, and I signed 
him. When I bought this farm I didn't know the 
taste of whiskey, but everybody took it in harvest 
times and when work was pressing, I fell into 
the same habit. One noon, summer before last, I 
was hungry ; the dinner-horn had not sounded, 
and I picked up my jug and took a long pull. 
The whiskey flew to my head as never before. I 
cut the grain every way. The ground seemed to 
rise and fall before me. Well, my little chap had 
taken his puppy and wandered off where I was 
working. It was hot. He was only five. He lay 
in the tall grain, asleep, with the puppy cuddled 
close to him. Well, the dizzier I got the more 
reckless I became, and suddenly slashed out with 
that sharp steel and — boys! The poor puppy 
never yelped, his throat was cut ; and my boy! A 
great gash on his white flesh, right up to his ten- 



B SOBER. 8l 

der throat, but escaping it, for the puppy nestled 
there. I don't know about the rest of the day, 
until I heard the boy would not die. Then I just 
held him up to God in my arms, and said : k Here, 
Lord, is my temperance pledge! I'll never touch 
one drop of liquor while I live, and this boy never 
shall either, if prayers and example and teaching 
can prevent it.' And so, boys, I can't treat you, 
for I have signed my name in blood." No one 
ever asked him to take a drink after that. 

Here is a pledge in rhyme, which a father 
wrote for his little boy to sign, and I wish every 
boy who reads this would sign his name to it and 
keep it: 

Temperance Pledge. 

u I can do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth me." Phil. 4: 13. 

Three things there are I'll never do : 

I'll never drink, nor smoke, nor chew ; 

I ne'er shall form an appetite 

For whiskey, beer, cigar or pipe. 

No alcohol or nicotine 

Around my person shall be seen. 

And three things more I will beware : 
I'll never lie, nor steal, nor swear, 
I'll speak the truth to every one ; 
What is not mine I'll let alone; 
My lips I pledge shall ever be 
From naughty oaths and bywords free. 
From these six things I will forbear : 
I'll never drink, 
Nor smoke, 



82 



B SOBER. 



Nor chew, 
Nor lie, 
Nor steal, 
Nor swear. 



Name 



Our Prayer : Heavenly Father, we have 
promised Thee never to drink, nor smoke, nor 
chew, nor lie, nor steal, nor swear. Help us to 
keep our pledge, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 






Eleventh Bible B. 
B Witnesses. 

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is 
come upon you; and ye shall he witnesses unto Me." Ac. 1 : 8. 
"This song: may he a witness." Deu. 31 : 19. 
"This stone shall he a witness." Josh. 24 : 27. 
"Be a true and faithful witness." Jer. 42 : 5. 
Mark with a red B and draw a red line under witness. 

A witness is one who tells what he knows. A 
Christian witness is one who loves Jesus and tells 
what He has done for him. 

Peter and the disciples were witnesses when 
they told how they had known Jesus, and He had 
suffered and died for them. Ac. 2:32; 3:15; 10:39. 

Saul was a witness when he told how he was 
converted. Ac. 26: 16. 

We are witnesses when we tell anything Jesus 
has done for us. 

A missionary — I would tell you her name if I 
knew it — wrote the following story about a little 
Indian girl named Wi-yu (pronounced We-yu.) 

Wi-yu's father and mother were heathen. 
She never heard a word about Jesus Christ till she 
came to the asylum. One day the child walked 
up to me and said: "I want to give myself away 
with you." I was much surprised, but looked into 
the little girl's black eyes, and said: u Why does 



84 B WITNESSES. 

Wi-yu wish to give herself to me?" "Because," 
she said, simply, "I love you." After this they all 
called Wi-yu my little girl. 

One day while Wi-yu sat by me learning how 
to sew neatly, I asked her if she loved Jesus. 
"No," she said, "I do not, but I want to. I want 
to be a Christian, but I'm too little." 

But Jesus says, "Suffer the little children to 
come unto Me." Mat. 19: 14. 

"I do not know how to go to Him: I don't 
know what to do," she said. 

"Wi-yu," said I, "you must give yourself away 
to Him." 

She looked at me in surprise. 

"How can I do that?" she exclaimed. 

"How did you give yourself to me?" 

"I came to you and asked you to take me be- 
cause I loved you." 

"Why do you love me, dear?" She hesitated 
a moment; then said: 

"I think it must be because you love me." 

"Yes, Wi-yu, that is just the reason. Now Je- 
sus has been loving you all this time, while you 
have not been caring the least for Him." 

She stopped sewing, and sat still awhile, 
thinking. 

At last she said: "Would Jesus be willing for 
me to give myself away to Him just as I did to 
you?" 

"Certainly, my dear child; that is exactly 
what He wants you to do. He wants all of you, 



B WITNESSES. 85 

too. He wants your little feet to run for Him, 
your lips to speak for Him, and He wants your 
heart changed that you may love Him." 

After some more quiet thinking, Wi-yu knelt 
by my side and said, "My Jesus, I give myself to 
you. I give my hands, my feet, my tongue, and 
my heart, I give you all of myself. Please take 
me, dear Jesus, and give me a new heart." 

She arose and said, "Do you think He heard 



me 



"I'm sure of it," said I; "and you will find 
His promise in your Testament." Together we 
found these precious words: "Him that cometh 
to Me I will in no wise cast out." Jno. 6: 37. 

Believing that Jesus meant just what He said, 
and having the Spirit's witness within, she from 
that moment knew that she was His own dear 
saved child. 

A few days after I said to her, "Wi-yu, after 
you had given yourself to me, did you try any 
harder to please me?" 

"Oh, yes!" said she, with a bright face. "I 
tried to please you in even-thing, even in the little 
things." 

"Are you willing to do anything to please 
Jesus?" 

"I think I am." 

"Will you tell the other girls that you are 
trying to live a Christian life?" 

She hung her head. "I am ashamed to tell 
them," she said. 



86 B WITNESSES. 

"Were you ashamed to tell them that you had 
given yourself to me?" 

u 0h, no, indeed!" 

u And yet, my Wi-yu, you are ashamed of Je- 
sus, your most precious Friend, who loves you so 
much and saves you from your sins. Oh, Wi-yu! 
Wi-yu! Let us ask Him now to forgive you and 
help you to please Him, even in this." 

We knelt and Wi-yu said, with a voice chok- 
ing with sobs: 

u My own dear Jesus, please forgive me for 
being ashamed and afraid, and help me to tell 
them all that I have given myself away to you." 
When we arose she said: 

"I can tell them now; I will tell everybody." 

On her way to find her schoolmates, she met 
a minister who was visiting the Indians, and of 
whom she had been afraid, because he was a 
stranger; but she looked up to him and said: U I 
have given myself to Jesus." 

He was much surprised and touched, as he 
thought of his daughter at home who knew so 
much more about Jesus than this Indian girl, and 
did not love Him. He put his arm about the lit- 
tle, timid Wi-yu, and said some kind and helpful 
things to her. After this she found it easier to 
tell them all; and even gained courage to write to 
her stern heathen father, though she was quite 
sure that he would be angry with her. Here is a 
copy of the letter: 

"My Dear Father: I have given myself away 



B WITNESSES. 87 

to Jesus, and I am not ashamed nor afraid to tell 
it." 

Her father was alone when this message 
reached him, and nobody knows what he thought. 
But the next Sunday he walked several miles to 
the mission church and heard the missionary 
preach about the same Jesus to whom his little 
daughter had given herself. After that he kept 
coming until he became a Christian. 

Every child who loves Jesus ought to be one 
of God's witnesses. 

A little boy, who had never heard of Jesus, 
la\' in a hospital, suffering much pain. His leg 
had been crushed, and the doctors said it must be 
cut off in the morning. He was so lonely and 
sick that he cried as though his little heart would 
break. 

In the next cot was a little girl. She heard 
his crying, and said, softly, "Is your pain very 
bad?" 

"Oh, yes," sobbed Harry, "and the doctor is 
going to cut my leg right off tomorrow." 

"Why don't you ask Jesus to take away the 
pain?" 

"Who is Jesus?" Harry turned his head now; 
was there anybody to take away his pain? 

"Why, don't you know Jesus," said the sweet 
little voice, " who left heaven and came down 
here just for us, and lived just for us, and died on 
the dreadful cross just for us, and who takes away 
all our pains, and sins, and loves us, and loves us, 



88 B WITNESSES. 

and loves us? Now He is gone to heaven to 
make a beautiful mansion to live in." 

It almost took the little boy's breath away ; 
it was like a fairy tale ; would it be true? Turn- 
ing to the little girl, with a deep longing look in 
his big brown eyes, he said, "Do you suppose 
He has any room for me ; would He let me come 
to Him before the doctors cut off my leg?" 

The little witness for Jesus was sure He would. 
And when the doctors came with their knives to 
amputate Harry's leg the little boy had gone to 
Jesus. 

What a sweet little witness this sick child was 
to the poor little boy, and how glad he was to 
find Jesus. 

A New Zealand girl brought to England to 
be educated, became a Christian. When about to 
return, her playmates said: "Why do you go 
back to New Zealand? You are accustomed to 
England now. You love its shady lanes and 
clover-fields. It suits your health. Besides, you 
may be shipwrecked on the ocean. You may be 
killed and eaten by your own people. Every- 
body will have forgotten you." 

"What!" she said, u do you think I could 
keep the good news to myself? Do you think I 
could be content with having got pardon, and 
peace, and eternal life for myself, and not go and 
tell my dear father and mother how they can get 
it too? I would go if I had to swim there. Do 



B WITNESSES. SO, 

not try to hinder me, for I must go and tell my 
people the good news." 

Do you not think this girl was a "faithful 
witness?" Re. 1 : 5. 

My dear friend, E. Payson Hammond, the 
children's evangelist, tells a story about a boy 
only nine years of age, who, rather than deny 
Christ, suffered the death of a brave young martyr. 
It was at Antioch, where the disciples were first 
called Christians, that a deacon from the church 
of Caesarea was suffering dreadful tortures, to force 
him to deny the Lord who had bought him with 
His own precious blood. 

This martyr said: lk I believe there is but one 
God and one Mediator between God and man." 
His body was almost torn in pieces. 

At last he said : u Call a little child, who has 
truly been converted, and let him decide whether 
it would be better to serve one God, the Maker of 
heaven and earth, and one Savior, who died on 
the cross for us, or to worship the gods whom the 
Romans serve." 

Just then a Christian Roman mother, who had 
come to look on the dreadful sufferings of the 
martyr, drew near with her little boy, nine years 
of age. The question was asked the child, and 
he quickly replied : 4k God is one, and Jesus Christ 
is one with the Father." 

The cruel men were filled with rage : " Oh, 
base and wicked Christian mother," one said, " thou 
hast taught this child to answer thus!" Then, 



QO B WITNESSES. 

turning to the boy, said: u Tell me, child, who 
taught you thus to speak? How did you learn this 
faith?" 

The boy looked lovingly into his mother's 
face. " My mother taught me that Jesus loved 
little children, and died on the cross, and so I 
learned to love Him for His love to me." 

u Ah," said the cruel judge, "we will see what 
the love of Christ can do for you ;" and at a sign 
the officers, who stood ready with their rods, after 
the fashion of the Romans, instantly seized the 
boy, and laid their heavy blows on his back. 

"Now we will see," cried the judge, "what 
the love of Christ can do for him." 

As the blood was streaming from the tender 
flesh of the dear boy, his mother replied : "The 
love of Jesus enables him to endure what his 
Master endured for him, and for us all." 

Again they smote the child, not only to tor- 
ture him but his mother also ; and the cruel judge 
asked again, "What can the love of Christ do for 
him now?" 

Many eyes were filled with tears as that Ro- 
man mother answered: "It teaches him to for- 
give his persecutors." 

When he was told that if he would deny 
Christ, they would cease to lay upon him the 
cruel blows that were fast driving the life from his 
body, he answered : "There is no God but one, 
and Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world. 



B WITNESSES. gX 

He loves me and I love Him, and I am going to 
live with Him forever." 

And, like the martyr Stephen, he fell asleep 
in Jesus. His sufferings were all over, and when 
Jesus comes, the faithful little witness who died 
rather than deny his Lord will receive a crown of 
life and reign with Him forever. Re. 2: 10. 

Our Prayer : Blessed Lord, we love Thee, 
too. We want to witness for Thee. We want to 
be faithful and true, and never deny Thee even 
though we should die for Thee. 



Twelfth Bible B. 
B Joyful. 

1. "Be joyful." Eccls. 7:14. 

2. "Let the saints be joyful." Ps. 149:5. 

3. "L,et them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee." 
Ps. 5: 11. 

4. "Be joyful in the L,ord." Ps. 35 : 9. 
Mark with a gold B. 

Everybody wants to be with those who are 
joyful. It will help us to be joyful to remember 
that Jesus loves us and has saved us and will 
never let anything come to us which is not for our 
good. This is what it means to " rejoice in the 
Lord." Ph. 4: 4- 

A friend said to a little girl, "Tell me what 
it is that makes you so happy? You say you are 
quite happy, and have been so since last night." 

"Yes I am quite happy," she replied, with 
much feeling. 

" But do you think you can tell me what it is 
that gave you such new joy?" 

After a moment's pause the child said, "I see 
the love of Jesus to me a sinner." 

" Bless the Lord, that is something to see; 
may you never lose sight of it! But in what way, 



B JOYFUL. 93 

my dear child, do you see His love to yourself 
now?" 

u I now see that He died for me on the cross 
and put all my sins away there!" 

11 Tell me, how do you feel towards Christ, 
after believing all this?" Her reply was natural 
and beautiful; she said: 

" I feel it is easy now to give my heart to 
Him, and I have done it." 

A poor, sick, lame boy sat by the window of 
a cottage, reading his Bible. Suddenly he looked 
up and exclaimed: " Oh, mother! I am so 
happy!" 

The mother's eyes filled with tears. Her lit- 
tle boy had so few things to make him happy. 
She asked, "My boy, what is it that makes you 
so happy?" 

The child lifted his pale face and answered, 
41 Oh, mother, dear, it is because God is so good 
and I do so love Him." 

" What put this into your mind just now?" 
she asked. 

44 Why, I have been reading in the Bible 
about His goodness in many things, and above all 
His greatest goodness in sending Jesus to die." 

When we think about the love of Jesus, we 
are glad in the Lord, whether we have anything 
else to be glad in or not. 

We should be joyful in our work. "The joy 
of the Lord" is our strength for work. Neh. 8: 
10, I.e. 



94 B JOYFUL. 

A little boy ran in from play and said to his 
mother, " I want to do something for Jesus. 
Can't you think of anything?" 

" It will please Him to have you good and 
kind." 

" I know it mamma, but I want to do some- 
thing." 

Then his eyes lighting on the empty chip- 
basket, he asked, *' Would it please Jesus if I 
should get you a basket of chips?" 

44 Yes, if you get it on purpose to please Him." 

He took the basket, and returned after a lit- 
tle with it full. Ordinarily he could not have 
lifted it, for he was only six years old, but his joy 
was his strength. 

''There," he said gleefully, as he put the bas- 
ket in the chimney. "Aren't they nice? I did 
not scrabble them up; I picked them one by one. 
I did not want to get any but nice ones for Jesus." 

We should be joy fid in tribulation. Those 

were, to whom Paul wrote, when they took joyfully 
the spoiling of their goods. He 10:34. 

Paul and Silas were when they could sing in 
a prison. Ac. 16:25. 

Gertrude L. Vanderbilt says: 

While the negroes in the South were still in 
slavery, I was travelingin Florida. Ononeoccasion, 
walking at sunset to the dock at which the steam- 
boats from the north stopped, I met a middle- 
aged man leaning on one of the posts singing 
softly to himself, 



B JOYFUL. 95 

" Swing low, sweet chariot." 

He took off his hat with the salutation; 
"Good evenin' missus; we's had a nice day." 
Then we began to talk somewhat in this way: 

"Yes'm ebery day might be de Lord's day, 
sure 'nuff. Eber sence I jine de church I' been 
happy all day long! I b'long ter Col. Smith, and 
I does my werry best." 

"You're a slave, then?" 

11 In cose I is!" 

"You work hard?" 

" In cose I does! But, den, I'd work hard ef 
I wasn't a slave. Now de Curnel, he suppots me 
an' my fambly!" 

So, so! I thought, "Here is really a negro 
who prefers slavery to freedom." But I was mis- 
taken. He was so accustomed to look on the 
bright side of everything, and so determined to 
"rejoice in the Lord," that even in his tribulation 
as a slave he always looked on the blessings he 
enjoyed, and never grumbled over the hardships 
he had to eudure. We talked about God's mer- 
cies and blessings, and from that poor slave I 
learned a lesson in praising the Lord, which was 
to me a new song. 

If we will be joyful, it will help others into 
joy. One cold night in winter, a lad was making 
his way through the snow that whirled furiously 
about. The boy looked cold and desolate enough, 
and many a pitying glance the passers-by cast 



96 B JOYFUL. 

on him. He passed a church, from which he 
heard the sound of joyful singing. 

He stopped and listened; then, entering the 
porch, he heard the words they sang — tk I do 
believe, I will believe, that Jesus died for me." 

Just at that moment he noticed a man stand- 
ing in the door-way, and he asked, " Please, sir, 
is this heaven?" 

The door-keeper looked down at the little 
shivering form, and said: " No, my boy, it is a 
company of people gathered to praise the Lord, 
andyou may go inside if you wish," and he opened 
the door of the church and the boy crept quietly 
into the nearest seat. At the close of the service 
some one spoke to him and told him of the Savior, 
of whom he had never heard before. He went 
home very happy, repeating the words all the 
way, " I do believe, I will believe." 

As he entered his home he was greeted with 
a severe rebuke from his father, and the only 
reply he gave was; " I do believe, I will believe." 
And his mother, when she went into his room 
that night, heard him murmur in his sleep, " I do 
believe, I will believe." That boy grew up to be 
a great power for good in his home. The joyful 
song had saved him. 

A lad was converted at a camp-meeting, and 
on his way home thought that his mother would 
disown him, his father never speak to him 
and his brothers and sisters despise him. Kneel- 



B JOYFUL. 97 

ing, just before he reached home, God's comfort 
came to him. 

He did not say anything, but the new-found 
joy shone in his eyes and in his whistle. 

One evening, ten days afterward, he said 
to his brother: "Tom, I was converted last week 
at the camp-meeting." With the tears running 
down his cheeks, the brother replied: "Henry, 
we've all been watching you. Mother says you 
look and talk like an angel. Father says you are 
the most agreeable one now about the place. Do 
you reckon God will do for me what He has for 
you?" 

"Why, yes ; there's a camp-meeting begins near 
here to-morrow. I'll go there with you;" and the 
result of that boy's joy was the conversion of all 
the family. If we are joyous, others will want to 
be joyful too, for joy is catching. 

It is not having many things, or beautiful 
things, that makes us joyful, but being content 
with such things as we have. I cut the following 
out of a paper long ago: 

"A boy about nine years old had everything 
that could make a boy happy — a lovely home, and 
a papa and mamma who did everything in the 
world to make him happy. He had a printing- 
press, a velocipede, a bicycle, sled, skates, books 
— even-thing: yet he was the most unhappy child 
I ever saw. 

" One winter morning the streets were covered 
with snow. All the boys were out with their 



gS B JOYFUL. 

sleds, shouting and laughing and having the best 
kind of sport. This boy went about the house 
frowning, growling, and whining. What about, 
do you think? He was dissatisfied because his 
sled was not longer, and refused to go out. 

U T won't go with such a mean sled/ he said. 

" That afternoon I was walking not far from 
this boy's house when I heard shouts of laughter 
from some children, who were out of sight around 
the corner. When I saw them I stood still. There 
were four children without overshoes, or over- 
coats, or mittens. They had an old broom for a 
sled. The youngest child was sitting on the 
broom, and two older boys were pulling him along 
by the handle. The fourth child, a girl, was run- 
ning along, holding the little one on the broom. 
Their eyes were shining, cheeks just like roses, 
and they were as happy as if they had the most 
beautiful of sleds," 

Not many things, but much contentment, 
makes us joyful. 

Our Prayer — 

" Help me to be good 

And do what is right; 
Always be joyful, 

And happy and bright." 



Tfyirteer^tr? Bible B. 
"B Watchful." Re. 3: 2. 

Draw a blue line under the word watch. 

I. Watch against sili. As the engineer looks 
out upon the railroad track; as the sentinel watches 
in the army; as the sailor watches on the sea; as 
the night watchman watches for thieves — so the 
Christian should watch for the approach of his 
enemies, sin and Satan. 

An engineer says: "I was running along one 
night in Ohio. It was a blowy, rainy night; and 
in times like that a man is doubly watchful. For 
hours I never took my eyes from the wet, glisten- 
ing rails, except when we stopped at stations. 

"All at once I saw in front of me — how far 
ahead I couldn't tell — a glimmer of light. It 
was just a spark. I barely saw it before it disap- 
peared. Was it a lightning-bug? I hadn't seen 
any that night. What was it? That I couldn't 
answer. But I stopped the train. 

" A farmer walking along the track had dis- 
covered a bridge so badly washed out by the 
freshet that to run upon it with a train meant a 
wreck. He tried to start a fire with paper and his 
clothing, but couldn't. He had one match left. 



100 B WATCHFUL. 

He kept that until I got close to him; his plan 
being to strike the match, hold it in his hat and 
wave it across the track, as he had seen the brake- 
man do, hoping I would see the blaze before it 
went out. He no sooner struck the match than 
out went the blaze. It was a mere flash; but I saw 
it, and the farmer had saved the train." 

II. Watch and pray . Watch ye, and pray, lest 
ye enter into temptation. Mk. 14:38; 1 Pe. 4:7. 

"I often recall," says an old sailor, "my first 
night at sea. A storm had come up, and we were 
in danger of drifting. 

"I was on the anchor-watch, and it was my 
duty to give warning in case the ship should drag 
her anchor. It was a long night to me. I was 
very anxious whether I should know it if the ship 
really did drift. 

"I found that going forward and placing my 
hand on the chain, I could tell by feeling of it 
whether the anchor was drifting or not; and how 
often that night I went forward and placed my 
hand on that chain! And often since then I have 
wondered whether I am drifting away from God, 
and then I go away and pray. 

"Sometimes during that long stormy night I 
would be startled by a rumbling sound, and I 
would put my hand on the chain and find it was 
not the anchor dragging, but only the chain grat- 
ing against the rocks on the bottom. The anchor 
was still firm. Sometimes now, in temptation and 
trial I become afraid, and then, praying, I find 



B WATCHFUL. 101 

that away down in my heart I do love God, and 
my hope is in His salvation." 

Watching shows us the need of praying, and 
prayer helps us to be faithful in watching. 

Once, when the Ohio river was frozen over, 
the son of a fisherman living on a " cabin-boat" at 
Henderson, Ky., was sent across the river to buy 
some milk. On his way back, he slipped and fell ; 
the pail fell from his hand, spilling the milk on 
the ice. 

George had sought the Lord and been saved 
a few days before. For fear his temper would 
give way when he should reach home and be 
scolded, he knelt on the ice and prayed until he 
felt that he had the victor}-. Turning around to 
get his pail and go on home he saw that the milk 
had frozen solid; so he picked it up, put it in his 
pail, and went on his way rejoicing. 

III. " Watch to see what he will say" Hab. 2:1. 
The Bible tells us what he says. And if we watch 
to see what Jesus says in the Book and commit it 
to memory, it will help us in the hard places. 

There is a story of a good boy whom some 
bad boys determined they would make drunk. 
One of them met the lad on the street and said: 

"Johnny, come into the saloon, and have a 
mint julep." Johnny said: "Oh, no, I can't go in 
there." "Well, why?" "Well, my Book says, 
'Look thou not upon the wine when it is red,' Pr. 23 : 
31, much less drink it." 



102 B WATCHFUL. 

The bad boy said: "Come in and take one 
drink." 

He replied: "I cannot. My book says: 'At 
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like 
an adder.'" Pr. 23: 32. 

" Yes, I know, but come in and take one 
drink." 

"No," he said; "my Bible says, 'When sinners 
entice thee, consent thou not.'" Pr. 1: 10. 

The bad boy left and went to his companions 
and they said: " Did you see him?" "Yes." "Did 
you get him to drink?" " No, I could not get him 
into the saloon." "Why?" 

"Because he was as chuck-full of the Bible as 
he could be, and I could not do anything with 
him." 

IV. Watch the way. Nah. 2: 1. 

Jesus is "The Way." Jn. 14: 6. We are to 
watch His life and follow it. He left us an ex- 
ample. He wants us to be like Him. 

I once read of a little girl, named Edith, who 
saw her mother tucking an apron for grandma on 
the sewing-machine, and wished so to help her 
that she said: 

"Oh! mamma! I can do that, I know I can! 
Please let me help make grandma's apron; it's such 
easy work." 

Edith's mamma knew it would not be easy for 
her little girl, for there was the wheel that must 
be kept turning, and the work to guide just right, 
so the stitches would come in straight, even rows 



B WATCHFUL. 103 

across the muslin; but Edith begged so earnestly 
that her mother gave her the seat before the 
machine and told her just how to guide her work. 

"Don't watch your stitches, little girl, don't 
trust your eyes in trying to get the width of the 
tucks alike," Edith's mamma said, u but keep your 
eye on this little cross on the brass slide. That is 
my gauge. If you watch that, keeping the edge 
you are stitching close to the little cross, you will 
make even rows in your work." 

But Edith thought her way better than 
mamma's. She did not watch the little mark, but 
watched the needle as it went flying across the 
breadth of white muslin. Edith thought her 
stitches would make a line as straight as her 
mamma's work, but when the tuck was stitched, she 
found she had sewed a wobbling, crooked line. 

"Why, Edie!" mamma said; ''grandma shall 
never wear such a crooked row of stitches as this 
in her apron. You must pick out every thread. 
Did you keep your work close to the little mark 
that I showed you?" 

Edith confessed that she had not once looked 
at the cross, but had kept her eyes sharp on her 
work and the needle. 

u Oh, child! no wonder that you stitched a 
crooked line with no better guide to follow than 
your untrained eye and hand!" her mamma ans- 
wered. " If, instead of watching your stitches, you 
had watched your guide, you would have sewed 



104 B WATCHFUL. 

straight lines, and your work would not have to 
be raveled." 

Jesus is our Guide. If we will watch Him, our 
work will please Him. 

V. Watch with Jesus. To the three disciples 
who were in the garden, and who fell asleep, Jesus 
said: "Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" 
Mat. 26: 40. We watch with Him when we watch 
with those who are sick or suffering; for He said: 
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these, ye have done it unto Me."Mat.25:40. 

One hot August day, two half-starved horses, 
drawing an emigrant wagon, with a drunken driver 
and a sick woman and four children, passed a rude 
cabin on a Kansas prairie. 

" Any water?" the driver said to a sweet 
young girl who stood in the doorway. 

Their bucket of water was the last they could 
draw from their well, but Rachel carried it to the 
wagon, and the thirsty creatures soon emptied it. 

44 Remember," said the sick woman in the 
wagon, " 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these. . . .ye have done it unto Me.'" 

Years passed. Rachel grew to be a woman. 
She had secured a well-known speaker to lecture 
in her town. 

44 I love Kansas," said the speaker, 44 for on its 
plains as a little boy I took my first temperance 
pledge. Then he told of the sweet girl who gave 
the horses water, and how his father threw away 
the whiskey bottle and he promised to be a sol- 



B WATCHFUL. 105 

dier in the cold-water-army. Rachel bowed her 
head to hide the tears and heard the still small 
voice say: "Ye have done it unto Me." 

VI. Watch for Jesus. When Jesus went away 
up into heaven, his disciples stood gazing into the 
sky after the cloud had received Him from their 
view. 

Then two men— were they Moses and Elijah, 
I wonder — came and told them that some day 
Jesus would come back again just as He went 
away, Ac. i: 10, u. So the Bible tells us to 
41 look for Him," He. 9: 28, and "love His 
appearing" 2 Ti. 4: 8; for He will surely come 
again some day. 

A beautiful marble statue in Chicago repre- 
sents a woman whose eyes are blind, with her 
hand to her ear, standing by the sea in the attitude 
of listening. It tells the story of a lovely girl whose 
father opposed her marriage to the young man she 
loved because he was poor. 

So, one day he left her, with love and pledges, 
to wait and watch for him, and he went away 
across the ocean to earn a fortune, and then come 
and claim her for his bride. Every night she 
used to go down to the sea and watch for some 
sign of the coming ship that was to bring him 
back. 

One night her father forbade her ever to do 
so again, commanded her to forget and renounce 
him, and in his rage struck her on the face, blind- 
ing" her for life. But when her sight was gone, 



106 B WATCHFUL. 

she used to go down to the sea and listen for the 
first sound of an approaching ship, or the footstep 
or voice of her lover. So should the beloved of 
the Lord watch for His appearing. 

"O joy, O delight, should we go without dying, 
No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying; 

Caught up thro' the clouds with our Lord into glory, 
When Jesus receives His own." 

Our Prayer : Blessed Lord, teach us how 
to be watchful, how to watch against tempta- 
tion, how to watch and pray, how to watch to 
see what You will say; watch the way, watch 
every day; watch with Jesus and watch for Jesus. 



Fourteenth Bible B. 
B Courteous. 

"Be courteous." 1 Pe. 3 : 8. 

"He hath made me a polished shaft." Isa. 49 : 2. 

Mark with a blue B. 

To be courteous is to be affable and polite. 

One day a brave, bright little terrier, going 
out into the lovely grounds which surrounded his 
home, saw a monkey, belonging to an organ- 
grinder, seated upon a bank. With a fierce bark 
he made a dash toward him. The monkey, dressed 
in a fancy jacket and hat, waited so quietly that 
the dog halted just a little ways in front of him to 
think what to do. Both animals stood looking 
steadily, for a moment, at each other. The dog, 
recovering from his surprise, was about to spring 
upon the intruder, when the monkey, lifting his 
paw, gracefully saluted him by raising his hat. 
The effect was magical. The dog's head and tail 
dropped, and he sneaked off to the house, refus- 
ing to leave it until his polite but strange guest 
had departed. 

Some animals seem more sensible than some 
people. The little monkey teaches us a good les- 
son. Courtesy will disarm wrath. 



108 B COURTEOUS. 

"Two it takes to make a quarrel; 
One can always end it." 

Courtesy is an " easy grace that makes other peo- 
ple comfortable." 

One day an aged gentleman gave a dinner, to 
which he invited a young friend and his wife and 
their only child. The child was a precocious, 
bashful, sensitive little girl of three. During the 
dinner she upset a glass of water, and hastily 
noticed the looks in her direction. Her lip quiv- 
ered, and her eyes filled with tears. The gentle- 
man who gave the dinner knocked over his own 
glass with a crash that drew every eye in his 
direction. He laughed over the matter, said it 
made no difference, and completely succeeded in 
withdrawing the attention from the child, who 
soon smiled again. The one who saw this inci- 
dent and related it, adds "That was the perfect- 
ion of politeness." 

A poor girl married a young man who after- 
ward became a senator. At one of their public 
receptions, a man from the country, who had 
voted for her husband, was shown into the parlor. 
He was dazed by the lights, the crowd, and the 
elegance about him, and stood helpless and awk- 
ward, fumbling with his hat, and shifting his feet. 

The hostess stepped forward, held out both 
hands, and in her fresh, clear voice said : "Why, 
how do you do, and when did you come?" 

" Child," he aswered, " how'd ye know me? I 
ain't seed you since you was a little thing." 



B COURTEOUS. IO9 

u No," she laughingly replied, lk the last time 
you saw me, I was up to my elbows in soapsuds, 
washing my dress to go to a picnic on your farm." 

The old man smiled. "I declare," he said, 
"it does my eyes good to look at ye, and find ye 
ain't a bit stuck up by your fine position." 

She made much of the old man, introducing 
him as u an old friend of mine," making his visit 
one of the events of his life, and one to which he 
always looked back with much pleasure. 

"Courtesy is the beauty of the heart" One day, 
in hastily turning the corner of a crooked street 
in London, a young lady ran with great force 
against a ragged beggar-boy, and almost knocked 
him down. She turned and said kindly, " I beg 
your pardon, my little fellow. I am sorry I ran 
against you." The poor boy was astonished. He 
looked at her a moment in surprise, and then, tak- 
ing off his three-quarters of a cap, he made a low 
bow and said : " You can have my parding, miss, 
and welcome ; and the next time you run agin me 
you can knock me clean down, and I won't say a 
word." After the lady had passed on, he turned 
to his companion and said: "I say, Jim, it's the 
first time I ever had anybody ask my parding, and 
it kind o' took me off my feet." 

Courtesy is quiet unselfishness. One day a lady 
went into a toy-shop with her little son and 
daughter. 

"Buy us each a lead-pencil, mamma," said 
Willie. 



110 B COURTEOUS. 

" Yes, do, mamma," said May. 

"I'll get one and divide it between you," said 
mamma, taking some money from her purse. 

When the pencil was cut one piece was 
smaller than the other. 

"What shall I do?" asked mamma. 

Willie, the younger, said, with a smile on his 
rosy face : "I'll take the little piece, mamma ; for 
I am a man, and ladies should have the best of 
everything." 

Courtesy is kindness kindly conferred. It is do- 
ing a favor with real joy in the doing of it. The 
"Christian World" tells how two lads with book- 
satchels strapped to their backs, stood on the cor- 
ner of a noisy, bustling street, laughing and talk- 
ing merrily, and waiting for a car. 

Suddenly one of them thoughtlessly sung out, 
" Come here and I'll pick you up ;" and the other, 
looking to see what had called forth the rude re- 
mark, saw a poorly-dressed old woman struggling 
up from the muddy crossing, where she had fallen, 
and watching anxiously the cars and carts passing 
by. He was at her side in a moment. 

" Let me help you, madam," he said kindly, 
taking her arm and lifting a basket that stood be- 
side her. 

She gave him a grateful look, but did not 
speak. 

"Can I put you on a car, madam?" the boy 
asked, as they both stood safe on the sidewalk. 

The woman's lip quivered. "You are kind,'* 



B COURTEOUS. Ill 

she said, " and I thank you ; but I'll rest here a 
minute, and then I'll have to go back over that 
crossing," shivering at the thought. "You see," 
she continued, lifting the cover of the big basket ; 
"some of the clothes slipped out and got muddy, 
so I must take them home and do them over.' 

She looked so weary and discouraged that 
the lad felt there was something else to do. 

"You were on your way to deliver them?" he 
asked. 

"Yes; to Judge Monroe's." 

u Ah," said he, "that's near where I live. I'll 
deliver the clean things for you, and you can carry 
the others back home and do them over." 

Her poor old eyes brightened, but it did not 
seem possible that the handsome, well-dressed lad 
would do this service for a poor washer-woman. 

"Where do you live?" he asked. 

"On the corner of Quay street — a long ways 
from here." 

"Yes, I know." 

Soon she found herself in a street-car, her 
fare paid to Quay street, and a silver dollar in her 
hand. 

" Bless him !" she said to herself. " Bless him ! 
He's a kind laddie, and he'll be a grand man some 
day." 

Meanwhile the lad was in another street-car 
with the basket of clothes, which he delivered 
with a merry smile to Mrs. Monroe, who laughed 



112 B COURTEOUS. 

as she said, "Why, Frank, what does this mean? 
Are you running a laundry?" 

He told her of the misfortune of the poor old 
laundress, and gave such a graphic picture of her 
fear of muddy crossings, Mrs. Monroe resolved 
henceforth to pay her car-fare back and forth 
from her home. 

kl To think that a boy should be more thought- 
ful than I," she said to herself. "Bless the laddie! 
He's laying the foundation of a noble manhood." 

The poor laundress and the aristocratic Mrs. 
Monroe both made the same prophecy, and I am 
sure it is being fulfilled. 

Courtesy is refinement of manner. 

Courtesy is "good feeling set to rule." 

Here are some rules of etiquette for those 
whose hearts are kind, but who do not quite know 
what is courteous: 

Always say, "Yes, sir." "No, sir." "Yes, 
papa" "No, papa." "Thank you." "No, thank 
you." " Good night." " Good morning." Never 
say, "What?" "How?" "Which?" Never use 
slang. Avoid all profane or vulgar language. 
Never abuse or scold any one, nor rebuke anyone 
in the presence of others. 

It is discourteous, unkind and uncharitable, 
to pay any attention to the deformity of another. 

Speak to a servant or a washer- woman, or a 
poor working-man, as kindly and politely as you 
would to a king or queen. Never ridicule any 
one, nor speak unkindly of them, though they be 



B COURTEOUS. I I 3 

miles away from you. Never mention an)' one's 
faults behind his back. 

Never correct a mistake in any one, unless 
it is important, and then say : "Excuse me, but I 
think you are mistaken." 

Give precedence to elders, visitors, and supe- 
riors. Offer them the best of everything. Always 
give way to them, unless they request you to take 
the lead ; then obey, for it is true courtesy to 
comply with the wishes of those who are older. 

Offer your seat to an old lady or gentleman. 
Let your companions enter the carriage or room 
first. 

Knock at the door of a private room before 
entering, and never peer into private letters or 
other property that may be in your way. 

Be on time at church, or school, or business. 
Punctuality is a courtesy to be coveted and 
cultivated. 

Be pure in your habits. Never smoke or 
chew. Tobacco-using is vulgar, injurious to the 
health of one who indulges in it and those who 
associate with him. 

Do a kindness as cheerfully for father or 
mother, sister or brother, as you would for the 
stranger. 

Sing or play, or do anything you are asked, 
at once without any excuse, but never push your- 
self forward. 

In conversation listen attentively, and do 
riot interrupt or reply till the other has finished, 



114 B COURTEOUS. 

Never whisper in company. This is specially dis- 
courteous, as is talking where any one is singing 
or playing the piano. 

Respect the religious belief of others, even if 
they differ entirely from you. Never argue against 
them, but be ready always to tell quietly why 
you differ from them. 

If called to defend yourself, speak low and 
moderately, and change the subject as quickly as 
possible. Be sure and acknowledge you were 
wrong if in the slightest degree you were. 

If in doubt what to do, the Golden Rule, Mat. 
7:12, the humility precepts, Ph. 2:3, 4, and the 
example of the Lord Jesus, Mk. 10:45, will help 
you. 

Our Prayer: Blessed Lord, teach us true 
courtesy. Help us to be affable, polite, thought- 
ful, unselfish, kind and loving. Help us to do to 
others what we would have them do to us. 
Help us to think of others as better than our- 
selves. Help us to remember that Jesus came to 
minister, and He wants us to be like Him. 



Fifteenth Bible B. 
B Thankful. 

"Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name." Ps. 100 :4. 
"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts— and he ye 
thankful." Col. 3 : 15. 

Mark with a gold B. 

Thank and thankful come from the same old 
Anglo-Saxon derivation as think and thoughtful. 
So to be thankful is to be thoughtful of benefits 
received, to be grateful for kindness conferred. 
One may be happy and not thankful; glad and not 
grateful. 

Sanford Cobb, the missionary to Persia, said 
to a young friend: "Do you ever feel thankful 
when God blesses you?" "Always." kk Did you 
ever tell him so?" u Well, I don't know that I 
have." "Well, try it, my young friend. Tell Him 
so ; tell Him aloud ; tell Him so that you will hear 
it yourself." It was a revelation to the child, who 
found that it was one thing to be glad for a favor, 
and another to be grateful for it. 

W T hen God heard Mary Prvor's prayer and 
saved the vessel, as by a miracle, from the terrible 
shipwreck that threatened, the first act of the godly 
woman after they all reached shore, was one of 
thanksgiving. There, in the mud and rain, she 



Il6 B THANKFUL. 

knelt upon the wharf, while captain and crew, pas- 
sengers and bystanders, reverently uncovered and 
bowed their heads, as she offered a fervent thanks- 
giving to their Father in heaven for their great 
deliverance. She was both glad and grateful. 

A little boy said to his teacher: "Carlo 
always says 'thank you' when I feed him." "How 
does he say it?" asked the teacher. " WI13/ he 
looks in my face so glad, and wags his tail." 

How often we kneel and ask for blessings, 
and do not thank our Father, when there is so 
much to thank Him for. Did you ever think that 

"Now I lay me down to sleep," 

is a prayer without any thanks? 

Mamie had had such a happy day. She had 
been to a picnic, and her brothers had taken her 
rowing, and she had had a pole and fished, and 
such good things to eat. When she returned 
home and kneeled down to pray, (she did not 
just say her prayers every night, but she really 
lifted up her little heart to Jesus, and told Him 
just how she felt and what she wanted), she waited 
a few moments thinking, and then said, with a 
long breath, "Why! I guess it's all thank Yous to- 
night, Jesus!" She had enjoyed so much and she 
took it all as coming from her heavenly Father, 
and there was no want — only "thank Yous " in her 
little heart. 

I like to thank the Lord in the morning for 
the general blessings, such as food, clothing, 



B THANKFUL. II? 

health, friends, home ; and in the evening for the 
special blessings of that day, as a book given to 
me, a visit from a friend, a subscription to the 
Illustrator, an opportunity to speak for Christ, 
a letter from home, or the memory of some past 
blessing. 

Bishop Hutton, traveling on horseback with 
attendants, suddenly dismounted and retired to a 
particular spot and spent some time in prayer. 
On his return, being asked the reason, he said, 
"When I was a poor boy I traveled over this 
mountain one cold, bleak day, without shoes or 
stockings. On that identical spot I disturbed a 
cow that I might warm my feet and legs where 
she had lain. I felt that I could not pass the 
place without thanking God for his mercies to 
me." 

It pleases our heavenly Father to have us 
thankful "for all things." Eph. 5:20. 

One day I was walking along Fifth Avenue 
while a procession was passing. Crowds were on 
the steps and at the windows. As I passed one 
lovely home, a little girl, standing on the stone 
base of a rail-fence, dropped her handkerchief, and 
I picked it up and handed it to her. She said 
sweetly, l 'Oh, I thank you so much." As I went 
on I found myself recalling again and again her 
pleasant "thank you." And I thought: After 
this, I will always say "Thank You, Lord," when- 
ever my heavenly Father does something for me, 
and net wait until the time for prayers. I know 



118 B THANKFUL. 

it pleases Him, as the little girl's words pleased 
me. 

"All things," means the little things as well 
as the great things. 

Little Preston was taking his Saturday-night 
scrub, and after the hard part was over, he was 
allowed to play in the warm water, splashing it 
over himself, and enjoying it thoroughly. At last 
his mother said : 

"Come, Preston, let's get out now, and get 
ready for bed." 

As he watched the swirl of water going out 
of the tub, he said, " Good-by, water!" Then in 
an undertone, "You sweet water!" 

A little laugh from his mother seemed to call 
for an explanation, so he added: " Well, it zvas 
sweet water, mother! It made me so nice and 
warm and clean." That was the way the little 
four-year-old child had of expressing his thanks 
for the water. Often grown people forget to be 
grateful for such little things, but this child-heart 
thought of it, and put his thought into words. 

It is a beautiful custom to give thanks at the 
table for food. Jesus did always, Mat. 15:36; 26: 
27. And when the great apostle was on the 
wrecked vessel, he followed the example of Jesus. 
No hurry, no fear of ridicule, no imminence of 
peril could prevent Paul from acknowledging his 
gratitude before the heathen. He "gave thanks 
to God in the presence of them all." Ac. 27:35. 

It requires little courage for a Christian to 



B THANKFUL. I 19 

ask a blessing before a meal at his own table. 
But to overcome the fear of ridicule, and quietly 
give thanks on shipboard, or in a restaurant, or at 
a picnic, or at a friend's house, where they are 
unaccustomed to give thanks, does require firm- 
ness and courage and grace. But if we follow the 
example of the good and of our Lord, we shall 
give thanks, not only in our own quiet homes, but 
in the hurry and excitement of travel and pleasure. 

When my dear niece Rilla was a little girl, she 
was invited to lunch with a friend. As the meal be- 
gan she waited quietly for the blessing to be asked. 
But the gay talking did not cease, and the waiter 
began to pass the cold chicken. She watched 
each one help themselves and saw no heads bowed 
in thankfulness. As the plate was passed to her she 
noticed a wing, the part she liked the best. She 
looked timidly at the hostess, then, before help- 
ing herself, bowed her head and said, softly and 
reverently, "Thank you, Jesus, for my wing, 
anyway." 

It is one thing to say we are thankful, and 
another to show that we are thankful. 

A little boy, receiving a present, knelt down 
and said : "Dear God, I thank You for my beauti- 
ful gift, and I will do a?iythi?ig you zvant me to do. 
Amen." 

That is one way to show that we are thankful, 
by doing what God wants us to do. 

A dear little girl was ill with diphtheria, and 
the anxious father and mother watched night after 



120 B THANKFUL. 

night with tears and prayers. The doctor said 
there was no hope for the little one, and the 
mother was moaning over her child, thinking she 
was too sick to understand. u 0h! my darling; 
how can I give you up?" The child opened her 
eyes and said : " Jesus, mamma, Jesus." The sweet 
words gave the mother new hope, and she said : 
"I will trust Jesus more fully. He knows best." 
And the loving Father gave her back her dear 
one. When the little one could sit up, she said 
one day to her mother: " Mamma, how will peo- 
ple know how thankful we are to Jesus for giving 
me back to you? I think we ought to do some- 
thing for Him." 

In a Brooklyn hospital, in the children's ward, 
is a little brass cot with a snow-white pillow and 
counterpane, for a little diphtheria patient. In the 
bank is money to buy everything the little sufferer 
needs. And visitors seeing this prettiest bed 
in the building, are told the story of the little girl 
and her mother who wanted to show how thank- 
ful they were for God's kindness to them. 

A thank-you box in a home is one way of ex- 
pressing gratitude for favors. A baby-boy whose 
mother was a missionary worker, hearing about 
them, begged for one. That night when his father 
came home he ran down the stairway with the box 
in his hand. " Do you feel very thankful, papa?" 
"What for?" papa asked, tossing the questioner 
up to his shoulder. "Cause you're home and I'm 
kissing you." " Indeed I do," was the laughing 



B THANKFUL. 121 

reply. "Then put a penny in my thank-you box," 
shouted the young missionary. 

Mamma had to put one in because she was 
thankful the spring-cleaning was done. Brother 
put in five because his new suit came home just in 
time. Bridget had the box presented to her when 
she was glad Monday was such a fine drying day; 
and sister gave twice for two pleasant afternoons 
gathering wild-flowers. 

So many things to be thankful for, the little 
box grew heavy. But one day there was no little 
boy to pass around the " thank-you" box. He 
lay up-stairs, burning with fever and unconscious. 
All night they watched beside him, but when the 
morning came the doctor said, " He is safe now." 
It was the answer to their asking. Brother was 
the first to drop a shining coin into the tiny box, 
with a " Thank you, dear God." One after another 
the rest silently followed his example. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us to 
think of the good things You give us, and thank 
You for them night and morning and all through 
the day, and help us to show our gratitude by 
doing whatever You tell us, and by giving to 
others of- what You give us. 



Sixteenth Bible B. 
B Patient. 

"Be gentle apt to teach, patient." 2 Ti. 3 s 34. 

"Be no striker but patient." 1 Ti. 3 : 3,3. 

"Be patient in tribulation." Ko. 13 : 10, 13. 

"Be patient toward all men." 1 Th. 5 : 14. 

"Be patient unto tlie coining of the L,ord." Jas. 5 : 7. 

"Be ye also patient." Jas. 5 : 8. 
Mark B. P. with gold or yellow. 

Patience comes from the Latin word pati, to 
suffer. So we use the noun patient for a person 
under the doctor's care. They who bear trial and 
pain without murmuring are patient. They who 
are forbearing and long-suffering are patient. 
They who endure trouble with calmness and for- 
titude are patient. They who can quietly wait 
and trust God are patient. 

A dear little girl wanted her aunt to crack 
some hickory nuts for her. 

" I'm too busy, now," said her aunt. 

" Well, auntie, me can wait till the busy goes 
away," the child said. She knew how to be 
patient. 

Little Susie Reynolds was a great favorite 
with Dr. Brown. One day, as he was passing, she 
called out, " Where are you going, now, Doctor?" 



B PATIENT. 123 

" I've just been down to Mr. Slocum's, little 
one," said the doctor. 

"Oh!" rejoined Susie. "I didn't know you 
had a patient there." 

" I haven't," answered the doctor. 

" Why, Dr. Brown. You don't mean you 
wish some of Mr. Slocum's people were sick?" 

" I don't have to wish it," replied the doctor, 
in a teasing tone. "There is somebody sick 
there." 

" Why, doctor! didn't you just tell me you 
had no patient there?" 

" Yes, those were my words exactly. Nellie 
is sick, and I've just been to see her, but she isn't 
my patient." 

Susie looked up in surprise. Finally she 
exclaimed, " Oh, I know what you mean, doctor. 
She is Dr. Meredith's patient and you are tending 
her while he is away." 

" You'll have to guess again," replied the doc- 
tor. "She isn't Dr. Meredith's patient, nor the 
patient of any other doctor in town." 

"Then I should like to know what she is," 
Susie asked. 

"I'll tell you. She is my little im-patient. 
She frets, and fumes, and fusses, and scolds, and 
worries, and cries, and sighs, and groans, and she 
isn't the least bit patient about her medicine or 
anything, and so I told her that she can't be a 
patient of mine; but I shall bring a new word in- 



124 B PATIENT. 

to my medical practice and call her my first 
impatient." 

Susie laughed, and as soon as her mamma 
would let her, went over to Nellie's to tell her 
about it. 

When her story had been told, Nellie felt the 
rebuke keenly. As Susie left, she said: "Please 
tell Dr. Brown that he hasn't any little impatient 
any longer; and I am going to be one of his 
patients." 

A woman whose life had been full of trouble, 
wrote: Nothing has given me more courage to 
face every day's duties and troubles than a few 
words spoken to me by my father when a child. 
He was the village doctor. I came into his office 
where he was compounding medicine one day, 
looking cross and ready to cry. 

" What is the matter, Mary?" 

"I'm tired. I've been making beds and 
washing dishes all day, and what good does it do? 
To-morrow the beds will have to be made and the 
dishes washed again." 

" Look, my child," he said, " do you see these 
empty vials? They are all cheap things, of no 
value in themselves; but in one I put perfume, in 
another a healing medicine. Nobody cares for the 
vials; what they contain gives them value. Your 
daily work, the dishes washed, or the floor swept, 
are homely things, and count for little in them- 
selves; but it is the sweet patience or love for 



B PATIENT. 125 

God that you can put into your work that shall 
last. These mike your life." 

Jesus is our example of suffering patience. 
Have you ever thought how He spent years 
of His life in a little country town, working 
at the carpenter's bench, ''subject" to His earthly 
parents, and doing patiently His heavenly Father's 
will? Lu. 2: 51. Jno. 8: 29, 1. c. 

And after He had healed the sick, and 
opened the eyes of the blind, and restored the 
lame, and raised the dead, and the chief priests, 
instead of being grateful, envied Him, and hated 
Him and unjustly arrested Him, He would not let 
Peter fight for Him: He would not pray for u the 
twelve legions" of angels" that were waiting to 
serve Him and punish them. Mat. 26: 52, 53. He 
was patient. 

When they falsely accused Him, " He held 
His peace and answered nothing." Mk. 14:61. He 
was patient. 

When they spat upon Him and buffeted Him, 
and crowned Him with thorns and mocked Him, 
He only pitied them. Mat. 26: 67; 27: 29-31. He 
was patient. 

And while they drove the cruel nails into His 
quivering flesh, as they placed Him on the cross, 
He prayed: " Father forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." Lu. 23: 34. He was patient. 

And when the passers-by reviled Him, and 
the chief priests and the scribes and the elders 
and the thieves taunted Him with the words: u He 



126 B PATIENT. 

saved others, Himself he cannot save," Mat. 27: 
39-44, He was so quiet and gentle and patient that 
one of the thieves was sorry he had taunted Him, 
and asked to be forgiven and saved. Lu. 23:39-43. 

When we think of Jesus' wonderful patience, 
shall it not make us forbearing with others? 

When Mrs. Matthews was a missionary at 
Castle Garden, she took into her home a young 
stranger from England, who had been committed 
to her care by his mother, with the hope of re- 
form. Many times he went away to drink and 
carouse. Each time when he returned she greeted 
him kindly, telling him she feared he was lost. 

One evening she invited him to attend a 
meeting. Toward the close of the service he com- 
menced weeping bitterly and throwing himself 
on his knees, cried out, "Oh! Lord, give me the 
religion these people have got, for I never saw 
anything like it!" 

After a little, He arose and shouted happily, 
"I've got it, I've got it, I know I have." And he 
had. Christ's patience in us is sure to win men. 

Jesus lets trials come into our lives that we 
may be patient in them and trust our Heavenly 
Father, as He did, that they will not be harder 
than we can bear. 

A little boy going home from work with a 
heavy mallet on his shoulder, said to his father: 
ki Oh! papa, how glad I am that we left the wedges 
till to-morrow night. This mallet is all I can carry." 

"Do the best you can, my son," said the 



B PATIENT. 127 

father; 4k I know you are tired, and the mallet is 
heavy, but be patient." 

For some time after these words of encour- 
agement the little fellow was patient, but at last 
he stopped, and lowering the mallet to the 
ground, said: "Papa, I cannot carry it an)- farther." 

"You need not, my boy." was the father's 
reply. "You have done well. Some little boys 
would have complained in a short time, but you 
have not. You have been patient, and have nobly 
strengthened your own power of endurance by 
what you have done. Now, my darling, I will 
carry the mallet the rest of the way." 

A gentleman, who walked behind the father 
and the child, and heard their talk, telling the 
story, says, 4t I learned a lesson that night. I 
learned that if I bore life's burdens patiently, my 
Heavenly Father would, when the time came, 
take them from me and bear them for me." 

Some one says: " Perfect patience is a sign of 
maturity, so that the young Christian need not be 
discouraged if he does not find himself possessed 
of it all at once. It is not the work of a day. But 
if he presses forward with diligence, and takes 
pains, counting it all joy when he falls into mani- 
fold trials, as James says, he will in due time 
obtain it fully, and find it worth all it cost." 

Here are some mottoes on Patience. Choose 
the one you think is the best and write it in your 
Bible and ask God to help you to live it: 



128 B PATIENT. 

1. Patience complains not, nor courts pity. 

2. Patience is genius. 

3. All comes right to him who can wait. 

4. Patience is a remedy for hard-times. 

5. Hold on, hold fast, hold out. 

6. Patience is lying-to and riding out the 
gale. 

7. The secret of all success is to know how to 
wait. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, teach us 
how to be patient, how to trust, and rest, and wait, 
and know that all things are working together for 
our good because we love Thee. 



Seventeenth Bible B. 
B Wealthy. 

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest pros- 
per and be in health." 3 Jno. 2. 

Mark with a red line. 

This is a prayer of our Lord for His "beloved." 
He would have us always in health. God never 
makes His children sick. He sometimes punishes 
the wicked with sickness, and He permits the 
devil to put sickness on His children, but it is 
never His perfect will for them. He says to us, 
if we obey Him, "I will take sickness away from 
the midst of thee." Ex. 23:25. 

The Bible tells us the sick are "oppressed of 
the devil," Ac. 10:38. 

Satan smote Job with boils, Job 2: 7. Satan 
bound the poor woman who touched Jesus' gar- 
ment and was healed, Lu. 13: 16. 

Jesus never made anybody sick. He healed 
all that were sick, Mat. 8: 16; 12: 15. He gave 
His disciples power to heal all manner of sickness, 
Mat. 10:1. And He is the same yesterday, to-day 
and forever, He. 13:8. 

A little girl fell down stairs and struck her 
back on one or more of the steps. For two weeks 



130 B HEALTHY. 

she complained a little and was nervous; then one 
morning she awoke quite sick, with pains in her 
spine and a contraction of the cords of the neck 
on one side, causing her head to incline over. 
The doctor found she was suffering from quinsy, 
intensified by the shock of her fall. Prayer was 
offered for her, and the abscesses broke, but she 
was more than ever disfigured and the pain in the 
back increased. Then her mother sent for the 
minister to anoint her with oil and offer the prayer 
of faith, according to James 5: 14, 15. Sleep im- 
mediately followed, and relief from suffering. The 
next morning, while mother and child were talk- 
ing over the goodness of God, the little one said, 
U I don't think you prayed quite right yesterday, 
mamma." "Why not, dear?" "Why, you see, 
first the minister prayed. I think that ought to 
have been enough, but then papa prayed, and the 
doctor, and then you, and it really did seem as if 
you were all afraid Jesus wouldn't hear the first 
time." The next day the pain was gone, yet her 
head was drawn clear over, and she did not feel 
very well; so she and her mother knelt to pray 
again about it, and the little one said: "Dear 
Lord, don't think I'm going to ask you to heal 
me, for I'm not, for you have ; only do please make 
me patient while I'm getting well." The days 
went by, and patience was granted, not only to the 
child herself, but to the parents. One friend, who 
called and saw the poor little thing, became so 
affected she remained but a short time and said 



B HEALTHY. I3I 

afterwards she felt the child would be deformed 
all her life. 

The little one was able to go about the house, 
but there was no change in the contraction of her 
neck, and her face had a pitiful expression, which 
was a grief to her parents. 

One Sunday her mother felt she ought to 
leave her and go and teach her Sunday-school 
class, as she had not been able to get any one to 
take it. On the way to Sunday-school she prayed 
earnestly for her little girl. When she came home 
she found the child sitting up perfectly erect and 
her face all smiles. The little one said: "Almost 
as soon as you were gone, mamma, I felt so sleepy, 
and I w r ent and laid down, and when I woke up I 
could move my head so easy, without a bit of pain 
in my neck or my back." Then mother and 
daughter had a real time of praise and rejoicing 
together at the goodness of God. 

Another dear little girl who was sick, after 
having quinine given to her, because her father 
was afraid to trust her alone to God, without any 
medicine, told her mamma she would much rather 
trust Jesus, because she knew He could heal her; 
besides, she added, " He never was bitter, and 
quinine is." She was not forced to take it after 
that; and in answ r er to her mother's prayer, in 
which she trustingly joined, she was speedily 
healed. 

A lad, about thirteen years of age, suffered 
much from a tumor that had grown upon the top 



132 B HEALTHY. 

of his head. It had grown about an inch and a 
half across, and protruded about an inch high, was 
painful and sore all around it, and he suffered a 
long time from it. Going to a physician, he was 
advised to have it cut out. He did not wish to 
submit to that ordeal. His mother said: "We 
will go all alone every day and pray the Lord to 
cure it." They did, and immediately it began to 
go away, and within a week it was all gone. Thus 
suffering, and perhaps life, was saved; but, what is 
better, a lesson of faith in Jesus was learned that 
no trick of Satan can ever remove. 

Marion Hull, a girl of eleven, wrote the fol- 
lowing in a letter to a friend of mine. "'The 
Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my De- 
liverer; my God, my Strength, in whom I will 
trust.' Ps. r8:2. This is my favorite verse, be- 
cause it says, 'The Lord is my Strength' i. e., I am 
His and He is mine. All that I am He has His 
say about, and why should I take the glory of 
anything? 

"One Sunday morning I woke up with my 
leg lame. Mamma said likely it was a growing 
pain, and didn't think much about it. But I did. 
It hurt me so that I could hardly walk. One leg 
got two inches shorter than the other, and I could 
only go to school part of the time, and had great 
misery for over three weeks. 

"At last mamma thought it was out of joint, 
and so did everybody. She went to a doctor, and 
he said it was hip disease and that I must go to a 



B HEALTHY. I 33 

specialist; so we went. Oh, I will never forget the 
walk home; my limping, and mamma very sad. 
Mamma said: 'Marion, I fear no doctors on earth 
can do it, but the heavenly One will.' That was 
the last. The heavenly doctor did it. 

"One day at dinner (a month after it first 
commenced), I felt a wonderful feeling come 
through my whole body. O, how blessed was the 
feeling, just as if God Himself had told me, 'Rise 
and walk.' With the excitement of the feeling I 
did not know what to do, but mamma told me to 
do it. I got up, and to my extreme joy I could 
jump, then I could run a little. O how blessed 
and good God is! How could I ever thank Him? 
We just knelt down and prayed and gave thanks- 
giving. 

11 Ever since then (which has been a year of 
God's own will), I have felt nothing of it, and my 
limbs soon got to be the same length again. God, 
indeed, has been my Strength and my Rock." 

When little Faith Judd Montgomery was only 
three and a half years old, she would ask the Lord 
to heal herself and others, without the shadow of 
a doubt. One evening her mother burned her 
hand and was suffering much. Grandma came 
and said to Baby Faith: "We will pray for mamma 
right away." But the precious child had already 
been on her knees in her mother's behalf, and so 
great was her faith that she utterly rejected the 
thought of another petition being necessary; so 
she ran with all haste to her grandma, to prevent 



134 B HEALTHY. 

her kneeling, exclaiming earnestly, u 7 did, Ga'- 
amma, I did, 1 did/" The tone, even more than 
the words, showed how thoroughly she believed 
God had heard her prayer; and He had, for speed- 
ily the mother's hand was entirely well. 

A shoemaker in Tokio, Japan, was led to 
Christ through a toy knitter, sent by the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society of Philadelphia, and 
given to his little girl from the Christmas tree. 
Not long after, he brought to the meetings a 
neighbor's boy, seventeen years old, who had 
been deaf and dumb from his birth, and asked the 
missionaries to pray for his healing. They did so, 
but the boy could not hear. The next night a 
young man came to the meeting and said the shoe- 
maker had lost all faith and returned to his idol 
worship. When the missionaries heard this, they 
went with two other Christians to the shoemaker's 
house and asked if they might pray for the boy's 
hearing. The shoemaker said it was too late to 
pray for him then, but that he would bring the 
boy to the meeting the next evening. 

At the close of the meeting, the leader asked 
the shoemaker to bring the boy forward where 
all the Christians could kneel with him. About 
ten prayers were offered, but he could not hear. 
So all were invited to come the next evening and 
pray. This was done, and before the close of the 
meeting the deaf and dumb boy could hear. 
Word was sent to his parents, and they came and 
took him home, and at ten o'clock, less than three 



B HEALTHY. I 35 

hours from the time he first heard plainly, they 
returned with him to show the missionaries that 
he had begun to lisp the vocal sounds. 

The boy's hearing was perfect from that time 
on. He was bound out to a poor man, with whom 
he learned the Japanese shoe-trade, but they had 
no time to teach him; so the shoemaker consented 
to give him a part of each day for study, and he 
learned rapidly. The shoemaker's wife brought 
the missionaries fifty pieces of money, which she 
was saving for the Buddhist gods, and said: 

44 Since I have found it is Christ that has the 
power to heal diseases, I wish to give it to Him." 

They took the money and subscribed for a 
religious paper for the shoemaker to read. How 
rejoiced they all were to have proved that Jesus 
is just the same to-day. 

Our Prayer — 

44 Blessed Jesus,Thou art mine. 
All I have is wholly Thine; 
Thou dost dwell within my heart, 
Thou dost reign in every part. 

44 1 am safe within the fold; 
All my cares on Thee are rolled; 
I enjoy the sweetest rest, 
For I'm leaning on Thy breast. 

44 Precious Jesus, day by day, 
Keep me in the holy way; 
Keep me cheerful, keep me well, 
Ever in Thy love to dwell." 



Eighteenth Bible B. 
B True. 

"Be true." Gen. 42 : 19. 

"Be true." Deu. 17:4. 

Draw a straight blue line under the texts. 

Think truly, and thy thoughts 

Shall the world's famine feed ; 
Speak truly, and each word of thine 

Shall be a fruitful seed ; 
Live truly, and thy life shall be 

A great and noble creed. 

— Horatio Bonar. 

A farmer said to his little boy, " It is time for 
you to go to the pasture and drive home the 
cattle." 

John was playing ball, and the pasture was a 
long way, but he was used to obey, so off he 
started, without a word, at high speed. 

Being in a hurry to get back to play, he only 
half let down the bars and hurried the cattle 
through, and one fine cow, in trying to crowd over, 
stumbled, fell, and broke her leg. 

John stood by the suffering creature, and 
thought to himself, " Now what shall I do? This 
is the finest cow father has, and it will have to be 
killed, and it will be a great loss. What shall I 
tell him?" 

"Tell him," whispered the tempter — u you 



B TRUE. 137 

found the bars half-down, and the creature lying 
here." "No, I can't say that," said John; "for 
that would be a lie." 

"Tell him," whispered the tempter again, 
"that while you were driving the cows, that big 
boy of farmer Brown's threw a stone and hurried 
that cow so that she fell." 

" No, no," said John ; " I never told a lie, and 
I won't begin now. I'll tell father the truth. It 
was my fault. I was in a hurry, and I frightened 
the poor creature, and she fell and broke her leg." 

He went straight to his father and told him 
the whole truth. He laid his hand on his boy's 
head and said : " My son, my dear son, I would 
rather lose every cow I own, than that my boy 
should tell me an untruth." 

The child who will think truly, speak truly, 
and live truly, will grow to a noble manhood. 

To be true is to be honored. A little Scotch 
boy came to this country to live with his cousins. 
He went with them to school. At night the 
teacher called the roll, and the boys began to an- 
swer "Ten." When Willie understood that he 
was to say ten if he had not whispered during the 
day, he replied : 

"I have whispered." "More than once?" 
"Yes, sir," answered Willie. "As many as ten 
times?" "May be I have," faltered Willie. "Then 
I shall mark you zero," said the teacher sternly, 
"and that is a great disgrace." "Why, I did 
not see you whisper once," said his cousin, that 



I38 B TRUE. 

night after school. "Well, I did. I saw others 
doing it, and so I asked to borrow a book ; then I 
lent a slate-pencil, and asked a boy for a knife, 
and did several such things. I supposed it was 
allowed." "O, we all do it," said Burt, reddening. 
" There isn't any sense in the old rule, and nobody 
could keep it ; nobody does." "I will, or else I 
will say I haven't," said Willie. " Do you sup- 
pose I will tell ten lies in one heap?" 

"O, we don't call them lies," muttered Johnnie. 
"There wouldn't be a credit amongst us at night 
if we were so strict." "What of that, if you told 
the truth?" laughed Willie, bravely. In a short 
time the boys all saw how it was with him. He 
studied hard, played with all his might in play- 
time, but, according to his account, he lost more 
credits than any of the rest. The boys answered 
"Nine" and "Eight" oftener than they used to. 
Yet the schoolroom was quieter. 

Sometimes, when Willie's mark was even 
lower than usual, the teacher would smile peculi- 
arly, but said no more of disgrace, and it made 
the boys ashamed of themselves, seeing that this 
sturdy, blue-eyed boy must tell the truth. They 
talked him all over, and loved him, if they did 
nickname him ''Scotch Granite," he was so firm. 
At the end of the term, Willie's name was low 
down on the credit list. When it was read he had 
hard work not to cry, for he had tried to be perfect. 

But the last thing that day was a speech by 
the teacher, who told of once seeing a man 



B TRUE. 139 

muffled up in a cloak. He was passing him with- 
out a look, when he was told that the man was 

General , the great hero. "The signs of his 

rank were hidden, but the hero was there just the 
same," said the teacher. u And now, boys, you 
will see what I mean when I give a little gold 
medal to the most faithful boy — the one really 
the most conscientiously 'perfect in his deport- 
ment' among you. Who shall have it?" 

"Little Scotch Granite!" shouted forty boys 
at once, for the child whose name was so low on 
the credit list, because he had been true, had made 
truth noble in their eyes, and they honored him 
for it. 

It always pays to tell the truth, though it may 
seem sometimes as if we might gain by telling a 
lie. Pansy tells a story of a lad who was sent to 
buy something by a merchant who wanted a boy. 
The lad was on trial and hoping to get the place. 
When he came back the employer said : 

"Well, my boy, did you get what I sent you 
for?" 

"Yes, sir, and here is the change : but I don't 
understand it. The lemons cost twenty-eight 
cents, and there ought to be twenty-two cents 
change, and there's only seventeen, according to 
my count." 

" Perhaps I made a mistake in giving you the 
money." 

"No, sir, I counted it in the hall to be sure it 
was all right." 



140 B TRUE. 

"Then, perhaps, the clerk made a mistake in 
giving you the change." 

But John shook his head. "No, sir, I counted 
that too. Father said we must always count our 
change before leaving the store." 

"Then how do you account for the missing 
five cents? How do you expect me to believe 
such a queer story as that?" 

"John's cheeks grew red, but his voice was 
firm. "I don't account for it, sir ; I can't. All 
that I know is that it is so." 

"Well, it is worth a good deal to be sure of 
that. How do you account for the five-cent piece 
that is hiding inside your coat-sleeve?" 

He looked down quickly and caught the 
gleaming bit with a cry of pleasure. "Here you 
are! Now it's all right. I couldn't imagine what 
had become of that five-cent piece. I was certain 
I had it when I left the store." 

"There are two or three things that I know 
now," Mr. Brown said, with a satisfied air. "I 
know you have been taught to count your money 
in coming and going, and to tell the exact truth, 
whether it sounds well or not— two important 
things in an errand-boy. I think I will try you, 
young man, without looking farther." 

The boy's cheeks grew redder than ever. He 
looked down and up, and finally said in a low 
voice : " I think I ought to tell you that I wanted 
the place so badly that I almost made up my 



B TRUE. 141 

mind to say nothing about the change if you 
didn't ask me." 

" Exactly," said Mr. Brown ; " and if you had 
done it you would have lost the situation, that's 
all. I need a boy about me who can be honest 
over so small a sum as five cents, whether he is 
asked questions or not." 

To be true is to be honest. One day a poor 
boy picked up an old envelope and found on it a 
postage stamp which the postmaster had failed to 
cancel. " The postmaster missed his aim then," 
said the boy, "and left the stamp as good as new. 
I'll use it myself." He moistened it at the nose 
of the tea-kettle and carefully pulled off the 
stamp. " No," said a soft voice in the boy's heart, 
u that would be cheating. The stamp has been on 
one letter; it ought not to carry another." 

"It can carry another," said John, " because, 
you see, there is no mark to prove it worthless. 
The post-office will not know." 

" But you know," said the voice, " and that's 
enough. It is not honest to use it a second time. 
It is a little matter, but it is cheating. God 
looks at the motive." 

"But no one will know it," said the boy 
faintly. 

" No one?" said the voice " God will know 
it, and that is enough ; and He desires truth in 
the inward parts." Ps. 51 : 6. 

The boy listened to the inward monitor, and 



142 B TRUE. 

said, " Yes, it is cheating to use the postage-stamp 
the second time, and I'll not do it." 

Then he tore it in two and threw it away and 
his heart was light, because he had been true when 
he was tempted, 

Those who are true hate lying, because God 
hates it. 

One day, while Gen. Grant was in the White 
House, an important conference was being held, 
when the servant brought up the card of a visitor. 

One sitting near the the door said to the ser- 
vant, "Tell the one who sent up the card that the 
President is not in." "No," said the General 
quickly, " tell him no such thing." 

Then, turning to his friend, he quietly re- 
marked, "I don't lie myself, and I don't want my 
servants to lie for me." 

Years afterward, when Grant lay ill, his testi- 
mony was called for in an important case. The 
lawyers and attendants went into his room. When 
he was ready to testify, they did not ask him to 
take the oath, as lawyers always do. They knew 
he would speak the truth. 

A little girl, talking with her mother about 
the sin of lying and stealing, finally said, "I've 
concluded it's worse to lie than to steal. If you 
steal a thing you can take it back, 'less you've 
eaten it ; and if you've eaten it you can pay for it. 
But" — with a look of awe on her little face — "A 
lie is for every 

One can never know the sad results that may 



B TRUE. 143 

come from a lie. A father had a vicious, kicking 
horse that he was anxious to sell. While trying 
to make a bargain with a man to purchase the 
horse, he said, "That horse is so gentle that my 
little girl could go up behind him and twist his 
tail and he would not raise a hoof." The child 
overheard the father's lie and believed it. 

One day, being left alone in the barn she tried 
the experiment, and was killed. The father's lie 
cost his little girl her life. 

Those who are true will never trifle with the 
truth. A little boy, for a trick, pointed with his 
finger to the wrong road when a man asked him 
which way the doctor went. As a result the man 
missed the doctor, and a little boy died because 
the doctor came too late to take a fish-bone from 
his throat. 

At the funeral the minister said that "the boy 
was killed by a lie which another boy told with 
his finger." I suppose that the boy did not know 
the mischief he had done. 

He never thought to kill a little boy when he 
pointed the wrong way. He only wanted to have 
a little fun, but it was fun that cost somebody a 
great deal ; and if he ever heard of the results of 
it, he must have felt guilty of doing a mean and 
wicked thing. 

Our Prayer : Blessed Lord, help me al- 
ways to be true for my own sake, for humanity's 
sake, for the truth's sake, for Thine own dear 
name's sake. Amen. 



Nineteenth Bible S. 
B Steadfast. 

"Beloved... be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding 
in the work of the !Lord," 1 Co. 15 : 58. 

"Thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear," Job 11 : 15. 

Mark with blue B. S. 

To be steadfast is to be established, constant, 
unwavering, firm, resolute, unswerving. 

A Troy child, asked for the text of the morn- 
ing sermon, which was I Co. 15: 58, said: "Be ye 
stuck fast, unmoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord." 

This reminds me of the following advice a 
father gave his boy: "My son, observe the postage 
stamp. Its usefulness depends upon its ability to 
stick to one thing till it gets there." 

This advice is illustrated by the following 
incident: A landlady, bidding a poor sailor-boy 
good-by, gave him a Bible and a guinea, and said 
to him, "God bless and prosper you, my lad; and, 
as long as you live never suffer yourself to be 
laughed out of your money or your prayers." 

The young sailor carefully followed this ad- 
vice through life, and had good reason to rejoice 
that he did so, for he was promoted from one 



B STEADFAST. I 45 

position to another until he became an Admiral 
in the English navy. 

The steadfast are unmoved by circumstances, 
and stand loyally for the right, though all the 
world is against them. 

An incident is told of the wife of one of the 
settlers of Erie County, Pennsylvania, that is 
worthy to go down through the centuries. Chris- 
tiana Dickson was a small, blue-eyed, low-voiced, 
timid woman who had a great horror of drunken- 
ness. 

She lived in the days when the use of liquor 
at barn-raisings was universal. One day, when 
her boys were little, she resolved to put a stop to 
whiskey-drinking in her home. 

Her husband being absent, her brother called 
for the help of the neighbors, according to custom, 
to put up a barn needed on her farm. They all 
assembled and went to work, while she prepared 
a good dinner. After an hour of two, whiskey 
was asked for. She refused to provide it. 

Her brothers, and at last an elder in the 
church, came to reason with her, to tell her that 
she would be accused of meanness. 

Without a word the little woman went to the 
barn, stepped upon a log and said: u My neighbors, 
this is a strange thing. Three of you are my 
brothers, three of you are elders in the church — 
all of you are my friends. I have prepared for 
you the best dinner in my power. If you refuse 
to raise the barn without liquor, so be it. But I 



I46 B STEADFAST. 

would rather these timbers should rot where they 
lie than give you whiskey." 

The men angrily went home, the little woman 
returned to the house, and for hours cried as 
though her heart would break. But the next day 
every man came back, went heartily to work, en- 
joyed her good dinner, and said not a word about 
whiskey. 

This led to the giving up of whiskey at all 
barn-raisings. Her sons grew up strong and 
vigorous men, and did good work in helping 
Christianize the world; their descendants are all 
of a high type of men and women. If she had 
yielded this little point, they might have become 
drunkards, like many of their neighbors. 

The steadfast will be unmoved by threats in 
the time of danger. Robert Moffat and his mis- 
sionaries were at one time commanded to depart 
from their station in Southern Africa. Death was 
the only alternative. The chief who brought the 
message stood in front of the cottage, with his 
dusky followers, spear in hand. 

The missionary fearlessly confronted him, 
while his brave wife from the window, with her 
babe in her arms, prayerfully watched the painful 
crisis. With steadfast gaze Robert Moffat looked 
the spear-bearing chief straight in the eye and 
calmly said: "We will not leave you. Your threats 
only make us pity you the more, for you know 
not what you do. If determined to get rid of us 
you must take stronger measures, for our hearts 



B STEADFAST. 147 

are with you. My decision is made; I do not 
leave your country." 

Throwing open his coat, he stood erect and 
fearless, "Now, if you will, drive your spear into 
my heart, and when you have slain me, my com- 
panions will know that it is time for them to de- 
part." 

The chief turned to his followers and said: 
"These men must have ten lives. If they are so 
fearless of death there must be something in im- 
mortality." Robert Moffat's steadfastness was his 
salvation and theirs. 

The steadfast are never daunted by difficul- 
ties, they do not run away from a hard place. A 
minister was holding a mission in a colliery 
district and went out in the morning to invite the 
people to his service. He knocked at one door 
and found a woman at the wash-tub. He said: "I 
called to tell you I am holding mission services 
at the chapel; will you and your family join us?" 

"Chapel!" she cried, "I'm up to my eyes in 
washing. I have a good deal more coming in, 
and there's that wringing machine; I gave fifty 
shillings for it, and its broken the first round." 

She was in a passion, and he did not say any 
more, but took a look at the machine. It was not 
broken, but had slipped out of gear. He set.it 
right, and then said: "You have been hindered, 
I'll just take a turn at the wringing." So he went 
to work. 



14© B STEADFAST. 

At last, she looked up and said: "I'll tell my 
husband to-night, and we'll come." 

The woman was saved, and her husband and 
all the family; and she became the best worker in 
the village. She went from house to house, say- 
ing: "Come and hear the minister this evening; 
it's he as mended my wringing-machine for me." 
And there was a blessed awakening in that place. 

The "steadfast in the faith," I Pe. 5: 9, do not 
waver, even in the fire of persecution, though ridi- 
culed and tormented. 

Three weeks before the battle of the Wilder- 
ness, a dozen soldiers were playing cards, when a 
low sound from a tent, occupied by new recruits, 
arrested them. They listened a moment; then 
the ringleader shouted, "Boys, he's praying, or 
I'm a sinner;" and another called out, "Hurrah 
for the parson!" 

The first speaker said: "You watch things for 
the next three weeks; I'll take the religion out of 
him." And in the days that followed, the big 
burly fellow, with his companions, ridiculed and 
persecuted the slight, pale-faced lad of eighteen. 

Then some of the soldiers, conquered by the 
lad's gentleness, begged the bully to leave him 
alone, but he answered: u Oh, the little ranter is 
only making-believe pious. When we get him 
under fire, you'll see him run. These pious folks 
don't like the smell of gunpowder. I've no faith 
in their religion." 

Soon the regiment marched toward Rich- 



B STEADFAST. I49 

mond, and engaged in the terrible battle of the 
Wilderness. It was a hopeless struggle. They 
were driven back, and when they reformed behind 
the breastworks the young recruit was missing. 
They had seen him last beside the man who had 
persecuted him, fighting desperately. Both were 
believed to be lost. 

Suddenly the big man came tramping through 
the underbrush bearing the other's dead body. 
Reverently he laid it down, and said, u Boys, I 
couldn't leave him with the Rebs — he fought so. 
I thought he deserved a decent burial." 

The men dug a shallow grave and tenderly 
laid him down. As one was cutting the name and 
regiment on a board, the big man said huskily, 
4 T guess you better put the words 'Christian 
soldier' in somewhere. He deserves the title, 
and maybe it will console him for our abuse." 

There was not a dry eye among the rough 
men as they placed the board at the head of the 
grave, and stood looking at the inscription. 
"Well," said one, u he was a Christian soldier, if 
there ever was one," and turning to the ring- 
leader, "He didn't run, did he, when he smelt 
gunpowder?" 

"Run?" he said, his voice tender with emotion; 
"why he didn't budge an inch! But what's that to 
standing for weeks our fire, and never sending a 
word back. He just stood by his colors, and let 
us pepper him, he did." 



150 B STEADFAST. 

When the regiment marched away, that rude 
headboard remained to tell how one lad could be 
steadfast for the Christ he loved. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, keep us 
steadfast; help us to be firm in our desire to be 
faithful and resolute in our determination to be 
true to Thee at any cost, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Twentieth Bible B. 
B Pitiful. 

"Be pitiful," IPe. 3: 8. 
"Pity the poor.'' Pr. 28 : 8. 

"Have compassion even as I had pity on thee." Mat. 

18:33. 

"The [Lord is very pitiful." Jas. 5:11; Ps. 103 : 13. 
Draw a red line under the texts. 

To be pitiful is to be compassionate. How 
often we read of Jesus that He "had compassion." 
Mat. 20: 34; Mk. 5: 19; Lu. 7:13. He never turned 
any one away, He never spoke an unkind word, 
He was always pitiful. 

One who knew not the secret or the sweet- 
ness of sacred ministry, said to a friend, "I cannot 
endure to go into the houses of the poor, they are 
so full of disagreeable odors; I do not see how 
you can sit down beside those people and make 
yourself so perfectly at home among them." 

"Why," said the other, "I thought that was 
what Christians were for, to help those who do not 
know how to help themselves, whom others would 
shun." 

In a Western prison was an aged woman of 
seventy, a murderess, who for twenty-seven years 
had been the terror of the place. Some one, not 
so despairing as the others, suggested that she be 



152 B PITIFUL. 

taken to a Christian reformatory. So, chained by 
wrists and ankles to a chair, she was carried by 
armed men, and set down in the hallway of an 
institution. The godly matron came to greet her. 
There was the fierce glare of a fiend in the prison- 
er's eye, but the one who meant to save her said to 
the guard who had brought her: "Release her 
instantly." 

In spite of their remonstrance, she insisted; 
cautiously they unbound the hands and feet. 

The matron stepped toward her, and laying 
her hand tenderly on her shoulder, stooped and 
kissed her. The eyes unused to weep filled with 
tears. Falling at the feet of the only friend she 
had ever known, she caught the hem of her dress 
in her hands and kissed it passionately. She was 
soon converted; in three months she became the 
saint of the place, and in three years she was the 
angel of the reformatory. 

A look of compassion, a touch of pity, a kiss 
of love, saved her. 

To be pitiful is to be merciful. A general in 
the army of the Rebellion, who was strict in his 
discipline, obtained from Abraham Lincoln a permit 
to shoot deserters. But the President's kindness 
of heart was more powerful than his respect for 
the discipline of the army. One day he received 
from the general this telegram: "President Lin- 
coln, I pray you not to interfere with the court- 
martial of the army. You will destroy all disci- 
pline among our soldiers." 



B PITIFUL. 153 

The day after receiving the telegram, an old 
man was seen by a Congressman crying in a corner 
of the White House ante-room, waiting, with a 
hundred others, to see the President. 

"What's the matter with you, old man?" asked 
the kind-hearted Representative. The old man 
told him the story of his son, a soldier in the army 
of Virginia, sentenced to be shot. The Congress- 
man took the old man into Mr. Lincoln's room. 

"Well, my old friend, what can I do for you 
to-day?" asked the President. 

The aged man told his story. 

"I am sorry to say that I can do nothing for 
you," answered the President, in mournful tones. 
"Listen to this telegram which I received yester- 
day from the General." 

The old man's grief was too heart-rending for 
the merciful President. 

Seizing a pen he exclaimed: "General or no 
General, here goes!" and wrote, "Job Smith is not 
to be shot until further orders from me. — Abra- 
ham Lincoln." 

"Why, I thought it was to be a pardon!" cried 
the old man, as he read the words. But you say, 
mot to be shot till further orders,' and you may 
order him to be shot next week." 

"Well, my old friend," said Lincoln, smiling 
at the aged father's fears. "I see you are not well 
acquainted with me. If your son lives until I 
order him to be shot, he will live longer than 
Methuselah did." 



154 B PITIFUL. 

The old man thanked the good President 
and went away comforted. 

To be pitiful is to help others. Some time 
ago a Christian young lady was visiting a lunatic 
asylum, and her soul was filled with sadness and 
pity. She was led into a room where there was 
but one patient, a young girl of her own age. She 
was standing in the corner of the room, her face 
almost touching the wall. She neither looked nor 
spoke. It was a heart-breaking sight. "Will you 
speak to her?" asked the doctor. l, We can do 
nothing with her. She has been thus for days; 
but one like yourself might move her." The 
young lady, trembling with emotion, with one cry 
to heaven for help, stepped forward, laid her hand 
on the listless form, and spoke one sentence of 
tender, yearning sympathy and compassion. The 
poor patient turned, gazed for one moment, and 
burst into tears. "Thank God, she may be saved!" 
the doctor exclaimed. The visitor could not recall 
the words she had used, but they had done their 
work. The poor, wrecked girl, who thought no 
one cared for her, had felt the heart that pitied 
her and the hand stretched out to help her. O! 
the power of tears! The magic of the sympathy 
of Christ! 

The captain of a boat stood beside his craft, 
listening to one of half a dozen gentlemen who 
wished to take passage up the river with him, but 
who refused to do so if he allowed a poor sick 
man to come on board. 



B PITIFUL. 155 

"Gentlemen, I have heard you. Has the sick 
man no representative?" he asked. There was 
silence, and the captain went to where the poor, 
emaciated invalid waited, weeping violently. 

u O, sir, are you the captain? Will you take 
me? If I could only get home to die in my 
mother's arms. I am her only child." 

. "You shall go, if I lose every other passen- 
ger," said the captain, taking the sick one in his 
arms and carrying him to a sheltered place on 
board his boat and then preparing to start. 

Suddenly, the passengers grew ashamed of 
themselves, and one after the other went on board 
the vessel. 

After a little they sent for the captain to come 
to the cabin. A white-haired old man, with tears 
in his eyes, said to the sun-browned hero: "You 
have taught us a lesson; we beg your forgiveness. 
Here is a purse for the sick man." 

And for the rest of the voyage they vied with 
each other in attentions to the invalid who had 
longed to get home to die in his mother's arms. 

To be pitiful is to be like God. The Psalmist 
wrote, u Like as a Father pitieth his children, so 
the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Ps. 103: 13. 
Pastor Andrew G. Fleming, in his children's book, 
called "Silver Wings," tells of a father and mother 
who had a little idiot-boy, whom they tried in vain 
to instruct. They would tell him of the great God 
who made the green earth and the blue sky, the 
twinkling star and the little flower; but his vacant 



I56 B PITIFUL. 

look showed he knew nothing of it all. At other 
times, they spoke to him of the love of God, in 
sending His Son to die on the cross, to save from 
sin and death, and woe; yet still the vacant look 
was turned up to their wistful eyes. One little 
gleam at times lighted up his face; then, after an 
unsuccessful attempt to understand them, he would 
shake his head and say, " I'll sing you a sang yet, 
afore I dee." Where he had picked up the phrase 
nobody knew, but the little gleam of light it con- 
tained was the one star of a dark night. 

The little boy sickened, and as he drew near his 
end, the weeping parents prayed that God would 
strengthen his feeble mind before he passed away. 
They pitied their poor boy. God pitied him too 
and heard their prayers and answered them in a 
wondrous manner. 

The little boy sat up in the bed: the vacant 
look passed away; his eyes beamed as they never 
had before. 

Slowly and distinctly he said: 

" Waly, waly, now I see, 

" Three in One, and One in Three, 

" And the middle One, He died for me." 

He did sing them a song before he died, a 
song in the night; but a night-song that told them 
the day had at length come. To the poor little 
idiot God gave a pictured view of Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit, a view more especially of the 
middle One that died for Him. Then He took him 
to live with Him forever, fulfilling His own Word, 



B PITIFUL. 157 

u In His love and in His pity He redeemed them," 
Isa. 63: 9. 

"He that hath pit)' upon the poor lendeth 
unto the Lord; and his deed which he had given 
will he pay him again," Pr. 19: 17. A lady, look- 
ing out of a stage window, saw a poor barefoot 
boy walking along the road. She bade the driver 
stop, invited the little fellow in, paid his fare, gave 
him a little money, and cheered his heart by kind 
words. 

Years afterward this same woman, old and 
poor, was walking along the same country road, 
feeling that God had well-nigh forsaken her. 
Presently a passing stage stopped, and a gentle- 
man, alighting, helped her into it and paid her 
fare. He told how he, as a barefoot boy, had 
walked along that road and of a lady's kindness to 
him, which he had never forgotten. 

With tears in her eyes, the old woman told 
him she was the lady whose kindness he had 
remembered all those years. The gentleman, 
delighted to meet her, provided for her every 
need, never let her want for anything, and cared 
for her all her life as if she had been his mother. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, make us like 
Thyself. Show us how to have the compassion 
of Jesus. Teach us to pity the poor, comfort the 
sorrowful, and help the suffering, for His sake, 
Who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen. 



Twenty-first Bible B. 
8 Transformed. 

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Ro. 

13: 2. 

"Be conformed to the image of His Son." Ro. 8 : 29. 
"Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Eph. 4 : 23. 

Mark with a tiny red Maltese cross. 

To be transformed is to be changed in nature, 
disposition, heart and character, Jno. 17:22; Phil. 
3:21, R.V. 

The first step in transformation is to be regen- 
erated or born again, Jno. 3:3, 5. Just as we are 
born once of earthly parents and have a human 
heart, so we are to be born again of the Heavenly 
Father and the Holy Spirit, and have a new heart, 
Ezk. 36:26; 1 Co. 15:49. One day a little boy was 
naughty and angry, and grieved his auntie, who 
had the care of him. 

When night came, he knelt at her feet so sorry 
for his passion, and began to say, 

" Now I lav me down to sleep ;'' 

but his auntie stopped him. "Ah, Dick," she said, 
"there is no help for you but a new heart! In no 
other way can you always be a good boy." He 
was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Must it 



B TRANSFORMED. I 59 

be that, auntie? Won't the old heart do if it is 
cleaned up a little?" 

Then his auntie explained that God would 
give him a new heart if he would ask Him. 

I read once of a little girl, only seven years 
old, who went to a children's meeting and heard 
the minister speak from the text, " Create in me a 
clean heart, O God," Ps. 51: 10. The Holy Spirit 
showed her that her heart was not clean, and she 
could never make it clean herself. She might 
wash her hands with soap and water, and make 
them clean; but no soap and water could reach 
and cleanse her heart. When the children were 
told to ask God for clean hearts and believe He 
heard them, she resolved to do it. So when she 
went home, she knelt down at once — not to ask 
Him to help her to be good, but to make her good; 
to take her old heart away, and give her a new, 
clean heart. 

The next night she did not use the prayer 
that the minister had taught her, "Create in me a 
clean heart, O God." 

Her mother asked her whether she had for- 
gotten it. u Oh, no, mamma," was the answer; 
u but it would not be right to ask God again for a 
clean heart, would it? I asked Him for it last 
night, and He said He would do it if I asked Him; 
so I know He has given it to me, for He is sure to 
keep His promise. He can't say 4 No, 'can He, 
mamma? And '. 
He has done it." 



l60 B TRANSFORMED. 

The little one was right. God cannot say 
"No" to any prayer offered in faith. 

It does not seem an easy thing for God to 
change wicked people, and make them, like Him- 
self, good and pure and beautiful, but nothing is 
too hard for the Lord, Jer. 32: 17. 

There are some things in nature that help us 
to understand what it means to be thus trans- 
formed from vileness to purity, and be made par- 
takers of the divine nature, 2 Pe. 1 : 4. 

Mr. Ruskin, in his "Modern Painters," tells 
us that black mud, type of impurity, taken from a 
foot-path in the outskirts of a manufacturing town 
is composed of four elements — clay, soot, sand and 
water. These four may be separated each from 
the other. 

The clay particles, left to follow their own 
instinct of unity, become a clear, hard substance, 
so set that it can deal with light in a wonderful 
way, and gather only the loveliest blue rays, refus- 
ing the rest. So the clay is changed to a sapphire. 

The sand arranges itself in mysterious, infinite 
parallel lines, which reflect the blue, green, purple 
and red rays in greatest beauty. So the sand 
becomes an opal. 

The soot becomes the hardest thing in the 
world, and its blackness has the power of reflect- 
ing all the rays of the sun at once in the most 
vivid blaze that any solid thing can shoot. So the 
soot is transformed into a diamond. 

The zvater becomes a dezv-drop, and a crystal- 



B TRANSFORMED. l6l 

line star of snow. Knowing these things, they help 
to illustrate how God transforms the vilest sinner 
into a pure and shining jewel, and changes earthly 
darkness into heavenly glory. 

God will transform us, if we will let Him. 
Dr. Clemance tells how he was climbing a moun- 
tain in the Alpine range. By and by they came 
upon snow and ice, and it was intensely cold. But 
higher up, where he had thought it would be colder 
still, he found beautiful flowers blooming. He 
said, 

"How is this? Down yonder are ice and 
snow; up here are these exquisite flowers." The 
secret was, that this part of the mountain had a 
southern aspect, and faced the sun, while the other 
was turned from it. 

So it is w T ith ourselves. When our hearts are 
turned toward Christ, who is the Sun of righteous- 
ness, the source of all goodness and beauty, our 
lives are full of the blossoms of love and kindness. 
But when our affections are turned from Him to 
such cold things as money, and fame, and pleas- 
ure, we bear no beautiful flowers of goodness. 

" However dark the day, 

However bright, 
My plants upon the window ledge 

Turn to the light; 
The stems, the leaves, the bracts, 

Seem well to know 
The certain principle of life 

By which they grow. 

" How strange it is that I, 
With active mind, 



l62 B TRANSFORMED. 

And soul that pain or pleasure feels, 

Not seldom find 
My heart turned quite away 

From life and light, 
And often for itself doth make 

A gloomy night. 

" When floods of sunshine stream 

Across my way, 
Or clouds of sorrow come to mark 

The passing day, 
Still teach me, O, my plants, 

Dark days or bright, 
To stand as ye, with hopeful face, 

Turned to the light." 

A minister who has traveled in the East says 
"The Mediterranean is as blue as can be painted 
or described. We have found what gave these 
waters their exquisite hue. The cause is as simple 
as it is beautiful, and full of instruction. It all 
comes from the clear, blue sky above. It is just 
the reflection of the heavens upon the calm bosom 
of the sea; and as those skies are clearer and bluer 
than ours, so those waters give back the glory 
they receive. 

"Would we have in our lives the heavenly 
glory, we also must receive it from above. Our 
holiness is just the reflection of His face. The 
Mediterranean is nearer the central zone and 
under the more direct reflection of the sun and 
sky, and so it receives the light of a brighter sky. 
So the nearer we come to the centre of His Pres- 
ence, the more richly will we reflect the glory of 
His life and light." 

The Bible tells us that God hath shined in 



B TRANSFORMED. 163 

our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and 
we with unveiled face, reflecting as in a mirror the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
image from glory to glory, 2 Co. 4:6; 3: 18. We 
become like those we reflect. To stand constantly 
in Christ's presence is to mirror His character. 

If He shines in our hearts, His light will shine 
in our faces. Moses turned his eyes away from 
the royal palace and in the desert endured as 
"seeing Him who is invisible." Heb. 11:27. And 
in the mount with God He reflected His glory, 
and when he came down to the people his face 
shone with the light of heaven. Ex. 34: 29. 

Saul, breathing out threatening and slaughter, 
caught one glimpse of this glory and was changed 
into a trembling, obedient disciple. Acts 9: 1, 6. 
Gazing steadily into that thorn-crowned face he 
was transformed from a zealous persecutor to a 
crucified saint, 1 Ti. 1: 13, 15. 

George Muller, in his boyhood, was a deceit- 
ful, ambitious, pleasure-loving thief. But gazing 
into the face of Christ he has reflected His image 
until he stands before the world to-day an example 
of humble, self-sacrificing trust. 

A beautiful statue of a Greek slave-girl stood 
in a certain market place. A ragged, forlorn child 
of poverty passed that way one day, and stood 
looking up at the figure in rapt admiration. Going 
home she washed her face and hands and combed 
her untidy hair. i\gain she stood by the statue 



164 B TRANSFORMED. 

and that day returning she washed and mended 
her soiled, torn garments. Each time she studied 
the form that held such a mysterious attraction 
for her it suggested some change in her circum- 
stances, until she grew like the statue she gazed 
upon. So if the sinner will gaze at the crucified 
Christ, he will find his rags of poverty changed 
for robes of righteousness, and his wild, wicked 
walk changed to a way of pleasantness and peace. 
Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us day 
by day to gaze steadily at our Jesus in loving 
admiration and intense longing. Help us to go 
often alone and think of His glory, and study His 
character. Help us to imitate His virtues and 
regard all things in the light of His glory. Help 
us to shun what He condemns, enjoy what He 
permits, and love as He loves, until that day when 
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He 
is. Amen. 



Twenty-Second Bible B. 
B A Blessing. 

"I will bless thee, and thou shalt he a blessing." Gen. 12 :2. 
"Ye shall be a blessing:." Zech. 8 : 13. 

"Be a blessing- in the midst of the land." Isa. 19 : 24. 

"Be blessing-s forever." Ps. 21:6, Marg. 

Mark with a red line. 

To be a blessing is to make others happy, to 
give others pleasure, to be good and do good. 
There are many little ways in which we can "be a 
blessing," after we have heard God say to us, as 
He did to Abraham, "I will bless thee." 

The writing of a letter has many times been 
blessed to the salvation of a soul. 

A wild, reckless young man, who was leading 
a most desperate life, ran away from his home in 
Scotland. He left a godly father and mother, to 
whom he never wrote. 

Years after, returning home, he found his 
father was dead. Sobered, but only for a time, 
he again became a disgrace to his family, and his 
Christian mother told him he must leave home. 
She longed for his salvation, but he would not 
allow her to speak about Christ; so she packed 
his box for him, and he went away to London. 

On the morning of his fourth day in the great 






l66 B A BLESSING. 

city, while putting on a clean pair of socks, he felt 
something hard in the toe of one of them. He 
took it off to see what the matter was and dis- 
covered a folded piece of paper. 

Opening it he found a letter from his mother 
— a tear-stained letter. He would notlet herspeak 
to him of Christ, but he could not prevent her 
writing to him. And with quick wit, she had put 
the letter where he would be sure to find it. A 
most touching letter it was. It read, "My boy, 
you have wandered far, but you are not beyond 
the reach of God's grace, for He says: 'Look unto 
Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,' 
and you are not beyond that yet. " 

Aroused to his sad condition, the young man 
burst into tears and then and there looked unto 
Christ and was saved. 

I read once how the giving of a S. S. paper 
was used by the Lord to save a drunkard. 

A man entered a minister's study, with a 
child's paper in his hand. There were tears in his 
eyes as he said, brokenly: 

"We had a little girl in our home about four 
years old; she died about three months ago. The 
light in my life went out. I've spreed it ever since, 
My wife begged me to go to church, but I told 
her the church was a sham, though when I was 
small my mother used to take me. Well, I was 
standing on the street corner, thinking, 'shall I 
go home or go on a spree?' when a little, girl with 
this paper in her hand, stepped up to me and said: 



B A BLESSING. 167 

" 'If you went to my Sunday school, see what 
a pretty paper they would give you! Don't you 
want mine?' 

"Oh, sir," sobbed the man, "it was so unex- 
pected that it seemed, for the instant, that it was 
my own little one, and I heard her sweet voice 
again. I took the paper and my eyes fell on the 
words, 'He died for you.' My pride is broken, my 
heart is sore; won't you tell me about Jesus?" 

Kind words seem like a cheap gift, but they 
are always a blessing. 

A poor, ragged boy came to a wealthy home 
where the crape on the door told that a precious 
daughter was lying still and cold in death. He 
held in his hand a few early violets which he had 
walked a long distance over mountains to obtain, 

"Be you Annie's mother?" he said. 

u Yes," was the low answer. 

"I brought these flowers to put on her coffin." 

"What made you bring them?" 

'She always said, 'Good morning,' and she 
never called me 'Ragged Tom,' like the other 
girls. Will you put them on her coffin?" 

"Yes, and in her hand, too, my boy." 

"Could I see Annie, just a moment?" 

"Yes, come in." 

He looked intently at the sweet face, then 
took another half-blown flower from his pocket 
and laid it in her golden hair. He went out 
softly and they buried her with the spring violet 
just where he had placed it. 



168 B A BLESSING. 

God will use a kind hand as an instrument of 
blessing. "When Paul laid his hands on them, the 
Holy Spirit came on them." Ac. 19:6. "God 
wrought. .. .by the hands of Paul.'' Ac. 19:11 
The hand is the symbol of power. God uses it as 
an instrument of blessing to others. 

Mrs. J. K. Barney, stepping from a S. C. 
steamer to the dock in New York, heard a rough 
voice shout, "Hello," and saw a drayman beckon- 
ing to her. 

"Did you speak to me?" she asked. 

"Yes'm, I see you've got on a white ribbon 
and I took a pledge of a white ribbon woman 
'leven months ago, and she said I could speak to 
'em, but I guess there ain't many, for you're the 
first one I've seen." 

He drew his pledge from his pocket, black 
and worn. "I've looked at it ev'ry day and kept 
it right straight 'long, sure. The little woman 
and the young ones could tell you about it." 

"Do you pray?" 

"No, but the little woman does enough of 
that for all of us." 

"Do you go to church?" 

"No, but the folks do." 

A few words of counsel and encouragement, 
then his hand was held out and clasped the light- 
gloved one. 

"Thank ye, marm." 

"God bless you and the little woman and the 
children," she said and turned to go. 



B A BLESSING. 169 

Looking back she saw he was eyeing her 
wistfully. "Can I do anything for you?" he asked. 

"Yes, will you?" 

^ Anything y 

u Go to church next Sunday with the little 
woman and the children." 

"Oh, dear," with a sigh, "I wish you had asked 
anything else." But after a little urging the 
promise was given and again her hand clasped the 
big black one. Hastening on she heard her name 
called eagerly. Three of her traveling compan- 
ions, who did not believe in the temperance cause, 
had heard it all. One of them said, "Will you 
give me that light glove of yours? It will not be 
of much use to you." 

Then Mrs. Barney noticed how, inside and 
out, her glove was black. The ladies each took a 
card of membership to the W. C. T. U. and a knot 
of white ribbon. "It is true, what you told us," 
they said, "and we want to begin and help" O 
the power of a redeemed right hand stretched 
out to save! 

If we are to be like Jesus we must seek to be 
a blessing to the wicked as well as to the good, to 
those who hate us as well as to those who love us. 

A friend of mine has a blind boy who has 
always been patient and loving in all his affliction. 

One day the family moved to a village where 
the minister's son, Sam, was the talk of the boys 
of the town, because he was so wild and reckless. 
At last he was discharged from the public school 



170 B A BLESSING. 

in disgrace. When Eddie, the blind boy, heard 
that Sam had been expelled his heart ached for 
him, and he persuaded his mother to send for him. 

"I'm so glad you've come," Eddie said, hold- 
ing out his hand. 

Sam went toward him. He had meant to trip 
him up the first thing; but the sight of his pale, 
pinched face and blind eyes made him feel strange. 

"Mamma, may we go out under the tree?" 
Eddie asked. 

One moment the mother hesitated, then she 
led him out on the green grass, and went away 
and left them. 

"Sam," said the blind boy, "may I put my 
hand over your face so I'll know how you look? I 
love you, I want you for my best friend." 

"You're green. Wait till they tell you who I 
am, and you won't love me," he answered, not 
moving. 

"I do know, and I do love you, and I do want 
you." 

"I don't understand." 

"Jesus loved me and forgave me when I was 
bad. I love you. I want you to let Him love you 
and forgive you." 

Sam was twelve years old. His mother had 
died in his babyhood. His father was a stern, 
silent man. The lad had been whipped and 
scolded and shut in his room, and deprived of 
meals, and expelled from school, but not even his 
own father had said to him: "I love you; Jesus 



B A BLESSING. I7I 

loves you; let Him forgive you." His heart had 
grown hard and bitter. He could not remember 
when he had shed a tear. 

Once more the blind boy asked gently: 

"May I put my hand over your face?" 

Then Sam threw himself beside Eddie in a 
passion of weeping, and said: 

"You may do anything. Nobody ever loved 
me before. I love you." 

The weeks went by. It was decided that 
Eddie go to an institution for the blind in a dis- 
tant city. The day he left Sam met him at the 
train. As he bade him good-bye he whispered: 

"If you had not been kind to me, I should 
never have been a Christian." 

Not long after Eddie received a letter from 
his mother, in which she said: 

"Sam used to be the worst boy in the village, 
and now he is the besr. Everybody loves him. He 
speaks and prays in the children's meetings, and 
is such a help in the revival his father is having." 

Eddie remembered his friend's last words as 
he left the depot, and down on his knees, with 
happy tears, he thanked God for making him a 
blessing. 

To be a blessing is to be blessed ourselves. 

A mother asked her little girl to carry a bou- 
quet to a sick friend. She started off and play- 
fully said: 

"I shall get the best of it." 



172 B A BLESSING. 

And she did. All the fragrance and beauty 
were hers while she carried the flowers. 

We always get the best of it when we are 
kind. The pleasure we give returns to us like the 
perfume of flowers. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, bless us and 
make us a blessing for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Twenty-Tl?ird Bible B. 
B Subject. 

"Be subject." Tit. 3:1. 

"Be subject to tbe judgment of God." Bo. 3 : 19, Jlarg. 
"Be subject one to another." 1 Pe. 5 : 5. 

"Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." Bo. 
13: 1. 

Underline with blue. 

A subject is one who is under the authority, 
dominion, control, or influence of another. 

To be subject is to be obedient, submissive, 
yielding, tractable, and easily governed. Those 
who are subject are not stubborn, not perverse, 
not restive, not rebellious, and not defiant. 

Yesterday a friend of mine said to me: " Have 
you written B Obedient yet?" "Yes," I replied, 
"that was written some days ago." Then she said, 
"An acquaintance of mine bought Morning Glo- 
ries for her little boy, and he is so pleased with 
it, but there is nothing in it about children being 
obedient; and he is such a nice little boy, but he 
rules the house." 

"Well," I replied, "I will write a chapter and 
call it 'B Subject.'" So that is the reason I have 
chosen this Bible B. 

It is not a bit nice for children to "rule the 
house." That was not the way Jesus did. When 



174 B SUBJECT. 

He was twelve years old and knew He was the Son 
of God, He would have been glad to have stayed 
in Jerusalem about His heavenly Father's busi- 
ness. But His parents did not understand Him, 
so, "He went down with them, and came to 
Nazareth, and was subject unto them," Lu. 2:51. 

One cannot know how to rule unless he has 
first learned to obey. 

God has put the father and mother over the 
children, and made the husband the head of the 
house, and the magistrate the head of the people. 
When we are subject, we show that we have faith 
in the wisdom of God and know that all things 
work together for good to them that love Him, 
Ro. 8: 28. 

Priscilla A. Richards wrote a story about her 
cat that taught me this lesson. She said: "An 
amusing incident occurred this fall, when we 
moved from Pine Hill to the city, which will make 
the annual breaking up memorable to each mem- 
ber of our family. 

44 We had been in a rush all the morning, doing 
last things, and by quarter of eleven our country 
home was in readiness for the winter. Windows 
and doors had been securely fastened, and our 
trunks were piled on the wagon. 

44 A loud 4 Ahem!' from the driver, and the 
suggestive words, 4 Not much time to spare, ma'am, 
if you're going to catch the noon train,' warned us 
that we must not linger. 

"As we were ready to start, Jennie took up 



B SUBJECT. 175 

the cat's basket to see if old Malty was all right. 
What was her astonishment to find the cover loose 
and the cat gone! Jennie was positive she had 
put Malt)- in his basket, and had left it in the 
hall, to be taken out with the satchels. k If I had 
labeled the basket Cat,' she murmured, 'that 
countryman would have known something was 
wrong when he found it empty.' 

u The children were heart-broken at the 
thought of leaving their favorite kitty. 4 We must 
search the house,' father said. k It would be hor- 
rible to leave a cat shut up in this lonely place.' 

"Sending the trunk-wagon on we jumped out, 
unlocked the front door, and, scattering, hunted 
wildly for the missing cat. Suddenly Jennie 
shouted, 'Come quick! quick!' Rushing to her 
room, we beheld, hanging from the bed, between 
the mattress and feather tick, a gray cat's tail! 
The children danced with delight over Malty 's 
cuteness. 

"But poor Malty did not consider it a laugh- 
ing matter. He looked sheepish as he was drag- 
ged out, and hurried into his basket. 

"The cunning old fellow knew what it meant 
when that basket was brought from the garret. 
Two winters in the city were enough for him, and 
he had no desire to spend another there. Forcing 
open the cover, he had slipped up stairs and, 
squirming into her bed, supposed we would go 
without him. 

"We held his basket all the way to the station, 



I76 B SUBJECT. 

and tried to comfort him by telling him that he 
should come back next summer, but he was a 
crestfallen cat, and, I'm afraid, will never forgive 
himself that he did not find a hiding-place where 
his tail would be covered, too! " 

Pussy could not know that to have stayed 
behind in the empty house would have been to be 
lonesome, hungry, cold, and finally to die of 
starvation. 

We do not always know why God asks us to 
be subject to some people, and sometimes it does 
not look as if it would be a bit nice to obey, but if 
we are ever again tempted to think that any com- 
mand of God is hard and unkind, let us remember 
the cat who would have died if he had not been 
found and compelled to submit. 

To be subject is to be submissive to the will 
of God. Two ladies were talking earnestly. One 
had lost a dear little babe, and had been at first 
submissive to what God had permitted. But as 
time went on she lost the restful feeling and feared 
she would never be happy again. 

44 Why not be submissive in the little things?" 
said her friend. 

"For instance?" asked the lady. 

" For instance, in the case of worry this morn- 
ing." 

u What! say k Thy will be done,' when John 
forgets to post a letter?" 

"Why not? It was a trial*that cost you a 
day's peace. You were unkind to John, and he 



B SUBJECT. 177 

was bearish to you. You think a kiss will make 
it up, but every such scene injures the bond of 
love." 

" And would you say 4 Thy will be done,' when 
Bridget burns the bread or little Jack plays tru- 
ant?" 

14 1 would indeed. Why not surrender our 
lives in the many little ways in which our wills 
are crossed, and yield to God? We should then 
receive His constant inflowing." 

"But," said the other, "there are so many 
things that are wrong, unjust, unfair. Ought we 
to submit to the wrong?" 

"We ought to let God work in us to heal the 
wrong. By submission we allow Him to come into 
our hearts, and work; but by anger and opposition 
we let badness in, and His indwelling becomes 
more and more impossible. Our Father gives 
Himself in every form for our use. Let us use 
Him in our daily life to be our patience, and long- 
suffering, and to endure our little trials for us." 

To be subject, is to be teachable; easily influ- 
enced to do what is right, and willing to be guided 
by God and good people. E. P. Hammond tells 
of a gay party who started to climb to the top of 
Mt. Washington, six thousand feet high. As they 
were leaving the hotel, the proprietor urged them 
to take a guide. 

"We do not wish a guide," they said, "we are 
determined to find our own way. We will follow 
the path and soon reach the 'Tiptop House/' 1 



I78 B SUBJECT. 

41 But you may get lost," said the hotel-keeper. 
•'Rather than have you go alone, I will send a 
guide with you for nothing." 

"No, we won't have him; we want to astonish 
our friends." 

" But it is dangerous." 

"We are strong, and will risk it." 

"Suppose you find yourself in a snow-storm, 
what would the ladies do?" 

One of them laughed, and said: "That would 
be nice. A snow-storm in summer; I hope we 
shall see one." 

And so they started for Mt. Washington. On 
they went, gay as larks, till they saw a white cloud 
above them. Up, up they went into it. 

"Isn't this fun?" said one and another. And 
so it was, for a time; but the snow became so deep 
they could not see the path. Then the fun was 
ended and they thought of the words of the hotel 
proprietor. 

"Oh! how I wish we had a guide!" said one. 

"It's too late to go for him; we must find our 
way alone," said another. And so they strug- 
gled on. 

Darkness came, and they were lost! 

It was dreadfully cold and they sank in the 
snow and waited for daylight to show the way. In 
the morning the storm had cleared and the keep- 
ers of the "Tiptop House," looking out, saw, about 
a stone's throw off, the half-buried party. It was 
too late to save one young. lady, who hzd froze?i to 



B SUBJECT. 179 

death, during that awful night, because she, with 
the rest, had said u We don't want a guide." 

How foolish they were not to accept the 
guide! But suppose they had taken him, and he 
had lost his life just as he had got them all safe in 
the warm hotel, how would the party have felt 
toward him? Jesus, who is u the child's Guide to 
Heaven," had to die on the cross before He could 
lead sinful children to Heaven. My little friend, 
He died that God might forgive your sins. And 
now He is ready to take you through the journey 
of life to the Golden City. Will you trust Him 
and submit to Him? 

To be subject is to be happy. The Book says, 
44 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
them." Jno. 13: 17. 

In the Child's Hour a lady tells how she went 
one evening to call on a friend and heard her say 
to her little daughter: "It is your bedtime, dear; 
my little girl must go to bed early, and then she 
will be bright for her lessons to-morrow." 

The little girl was sitting in her papa's easy- 
chair, holding a large doll, brushing its hair and 
smoothing its clothes. 

"What a dear dollie! How pretty her hair is, 
and how becomingly she is dressed ! " the lady said. 
The little girl was pleased and began telling her 
about the doll. 

" Not to-night, little one," she said. " Didn't I 
hear mamma say it was her little girl's bed-time?" 

The mother began talking to her friend, while 



ISO B SUBJECT. 

the little girl went on fixing dollie for the night. 

Then the child slid slowly out of the big chair, 
gave her mamma three long, sweet kisses, with a 
pleasant good-night for all, and with dollie hugged 
tightly in her arms, went soberly upstairs. In a 
few moments they heard her singing a soft lullaby 
to her baby. 

Very likely the little girl could not have told 
what made her feel like singing; but it was because, 
instead of fretting over not being allowed to sit 
up she had cheerfully submitted to her mother's 
wishes. 

Our Prayer — 

" O God, take the reins of my life; 
I have driven it blindly to left and to right, 
In the blaze of the sun and the black of the night; 
O God, take the reins of my life! 

" For I am so weary and weak, 
My hands are a-quiver and so is my heart, 
And my eyes are too tired for the tear-drops to 
start, 
While I am all weary and weak. 

" But thou wilt be peace, wilt be power, 
Thy hand on the reins and Thine eyes on the way, 
Shall be wisdom to guide and controlling to stay; 

And my life, in that hour, 
Shall be led into rest when it comes to obey; 

For Thou wilt be peace and all power." 



Twentcj-pourth Bible B. 
B ^eady. 

Mark B Read y with a gold cross, and draw a yellow line under the 
other texts. 

The motto of a German commentator is a 
good one for us all : "Always to be ready." 

There are four texts on B Ready that you will 
enjoy : 

I. " Be ready in the morning." Ex. 34: 2. 

Promptness is a virtue it were worth while to 
cultivate. 

Before you sleep at night ask the Lord to 
waken you in the morning, Isa. 50: 4, in time to 
get read)' for the day's duties. 

Before you get up ask Him to work in you 
that day " to will and to do of His good pleasure." 
Phil. 2:13. 

As you dress ask Him to help you not to idle 
away 7 time in building air-castles, Eph. 5: 16, nor 
waste it in needless chatting, Eph. 5:4. R. V., but 
that you may 7 arrange your toilet and care for 
your room quickly and quietly, 1 Th. 4:11, and be 
ready for closet pray r er, ready for breakfast, ready 
for family prayers, ready 7 for errands, ready 7 for 
school, ready 7 for business, ready for church. 



182 B READY. 

II. " Be ready to every good work," Tit. 3:1. 
Be prepared for what you are about to do ; 
equipped with what is needed for the work ; will- 
ing, free, inclined, disposed, Ac. 21 : 13, first clause. 

III. " Be ready always to give an answer to 
every man that asketh you a reason of the hope 
that is in you." 1 Pe. 3:15. A little girl, nine 
years old, went one day into Pastor Arthur 
T. Pierson's study, to talk with him about joining 
the church. He held out his hand to her and 
said, " Glad to see you, Annie ; you have come to 
seek the Lord?" 

"No, sir," she replied, quickly. 

"Oh! I hoped you had." 

"No, I have found Him." 

" How do you know?" 

"Because He said so." 

"Said what?" 

" Him that cometh to me I will in nowise 
cast out." Jno. 6: 37. 

" But how does that tell you that you have 
found Jesus?" 

"Why I know I've come, so I know He has 
not cast me out." 

Little Annie was ready to give an answer why 
Jesus had saved her. 

IV. "Be ye also ready, for in such an hour 
as ye think not the Son of man cometh," Mat. 24: 
44 ; Lu. 1240. 

When Jesus went away He left word that He 
was coming back again sometime Jno. 14:1-3; 



B READY. I83 

but He did not tell us when ; He only told us to 
be ready. 

One summer, Pastor A. J. Gordon was living 
in the country with his family. Summoned sud- 
denly to the city on important business, he said to 
his children, " Good-bye ; I may be back to-mor- 
row or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday, or 
Saturday; I will come as soon as I can." 

He did not get back until Saturday, but found 
his children at the station waiting for him with 
delight and welcome. When he reached home his 
wife said: "Every afternoon when the train was 
due the children came to be washed and dressed 
and made ready to meet you, saying, 4 Papa may 
come to-day.' " 

If they had not been looking for their father 
day by day, he would probably have found them 
with dirty faces and spotted garments. 

If we are not looking for Jesus and expecting 
Him to come at any moment, we will be apt to let 
our garments become spotted with sin. 

Let us always keep them clean, that when 
Jesus comes, He may find us "not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but. . . .holy and 
without blemish," Eph. 5 : 27. 

Those who are not ready when Jesus comes, 
cannot go to meet Him. They will be left behind. 
One evening, at family worship, a gentleman read 
1 Th. 4. The last verses about the Lord's coming 
impressed him. That night he dreamed that when 
wakened in the morning his wife was not beside 



1 84 B READY. 

him. He waited for her to come, but she did not, 
and he rose and dressed. He went to his daugh- 
ter's room and found that she, too, was missing. 

Then he went to his son's room, and told him 
of the absence of his mother and sister, and asked 
him to see if he could not find them. The young 
man looked through every room ; then returned 
and said : " They are not in the house, and every 
outside door is locked." 

Then each decided to go in a different direc- 
tion and visit the homes of intimate friends in 
search of their dear ones. To their surprise and 
dismay in almost every home they found a trouble 
similar to their own. Almost every one was 
searching for missing ones. The streets were 
thronged with excited people hurrying to and fro, 
many of them weeping bitterly 

After a fruitless search the father and son 
started for their place of business. Many stores 
were closed, and those that were open not doing 
any business. 

Reaching their store, they found the book- 
keeper and the faithful old porter missing. Then 
the father went to the Chamber of Commerce and 
found a large gathering of merchants. But in- 
stead of the usual lively bustle, a solemn gloom 
pervaded the assembly. They voted to allow 
three days' grace on all contracts falling due that 
day. 

All agreed that the visitation was a super- 



B READY. I85 

natural one, and that they who were left were 
blameable. 

In the evening nearly every church was open, 
with overflowing congregations. Everybody was 
anxious to know the meaning of the "great visi- 
tation." Many of the pastors had gone, but some 
were in their churches 

In their own church, the father and son found 
their pastor present, and scores whom they had 
rarely seen at meeting. Some were weeping over 
the loss of children, others of husbands, of wives, 
of fathers and mothers. The pastor was speaking 
when they entered, begging the audience to allay 
their feelings. He said, " None of you can know 
my disappointment at this result of my labors. I 
am accused of having preached too much about 
the affairs of this life, and too little about the 
things to come, and of having kept you in igno- 
rance of the nearness of this awful visitation. I 
can only say that I taught the same theology that 
was taught me in college ; but I was sadly mis- 
taken, for now I see God's Word means just what 
it says." Here the electric light suddenly went 
out, and there arose such fearful screams that the 
gentleman sprang to his feet in terror and awoke. 

Oh, how glad he was to know that it was all a 
dream! But the more he thought about it, the 
more solemn seemed its. truth, and the more he 
was impressed with the importance of being ready 
for the coming of the Lord. 

To be read)' for Jesus' coming is to do noth- 



l86 B READY. 

ing to-day you would not do if you knew he were 
coming tomorrow. 

A lady said to John Wesley, " Supposing you 
knew you were to die at twelve to-morrow night, 
how would you spend the intervening time?" 

"Why, just as I intend to spend it now. I 
should preach this evening at Gloucester, and 
again at five to-morrow morning ; after that I 
should ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the after- 
noon, and meet the societies in the evening. I 
should then go to friend Martin's house, who ex- 
pects to entertain me, converse and pray with the 
family as usual, retire to my room at ten o'clock, 
and wake up in glory." 

Pastor Spurgeon said once, " If the Lord 
Jesus were to come to-day, I should like him to 
find me studying, or praying, or preaching." 

One day he called on one of his members and 
found her cleaning the front steps. She rose in 
confusion and said, u Oh dear, sir, I did not know 
you were coming to-day or I would have been 
ready." Pastor Spurgeon answered, " Dear friend, 
you could not be in better trim than you are ; you 
are doing your duty like a good housekeeper, and 
may God bless you." 

Those who are ready love His appearing, 2 
Ti. 4:8. 

"What can I do for Jesus?" little Alice asked 
her mother. 

u You can love Him," was the answer. 



B READY. 187 

"I do that," said the child, " I love Him, and 
that makes me ask." 

" How do you know you love Him?" asked 
her mother. 

" Because I feel a cry in my eyes when I 
think of Him, as I do for my papa off in India." 

The child loved her father, and when they 
talked about him her eyes would grow moist and 
she would lay her head on her mother's bosom 
and weep. If we are " ready" there is a cry 
in our eyes when we think that Jesus is absent. 

We love His will, His Word, His work, Him- 
self, better than all else. W T e "love His appear- 
ing" and long for His presence, and pray often, 
11 Amen, come, Lord Jesus." Re. 22 : 20. 

Our Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to be 
ready to do what Thou askest of us, and be ready 
for Thy coming ; and, oh, Lord Jesus, come 
quickly. Amen. 



Twentg-Fi?t^ Bible B. 
B mindful. 

"Be ye mindful always of His covenant." 1 Ch. 16 : 15. 
"He will ever be mindful of His covenant." Ps. 111:5. 
"Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the 
holy prophets." 2Pe.3;2. 
Mark with a blue B. M. 

To be mindful is to be thoughtful, regardful, 
attentive, heedful, and observant. 

It is to recall, to remember. A little colored 
girl was in disgrace and in solitary confinement in 
her room, because of disobedience. As her kind- 
hearted mistress came to speak with her about her 
offense, the child said : 

"Missus, won't you please 'member me of 
this time when I'm gwin to do it again?" She 
felt sure she would never be disobedient again if 
in the hour of temptation her mistress would re- 
mind her of how she suffered in being punished 
for her sin. 

If we will ask Jesus, He will help us to be 
mindful of how sad it is to forget His covenant, 
and sin, and then have to suffer. 

To be "mindful of his covenant" we must 
know the Bible. And to know the Bible we must 



B MINDFUL. I89 

read it every day, Deu. 17: 19, and study it every 
day, Ac. 17: 11, and love it, Ps. 119:97. 

The first thing to learn in the study of God's 
Word is the books of the Bible. Here they are in 
rhyme : 

"In Genesis the world was made by God*s creative hand. 

In Exodus the Hebrews marched to gain the promised land. 

Leviticus contains the law, holy and just and good. 

Numbers records the tribes enrolled — all sons of Abraham's blood. 

" Moses in Deuteronomy records God's mighty deeds. 
Brave Joshua into. Canaan the host of Israel leads. 
In Judges their rebellion oft provokes the Lord to smite; 
But Ruth records the faith of one well-pleasing in His sight. 

"In First and Second Samuel of Jesse's son we read. 
Ten tribes in First and Second Kings revolted from his seed. 
The First and Second Chronicles see Judah captive made, 
But Ezra leads a remnant back by princely Cyrus' aid. 

"The city walls of Zion Nehemiah builds again. 
While Esther saves her people from plot of wicked men. 
In Job we read how faith will live beneath affliction's rod; 
And David's Psalms are precious songs to every child of God. 

" The Proverbs, like a goodly string of choicest pearls, appear. 
Ecclesiastes teaches man how vain all things are here. 
The mystic Song of Solomon exalts sweet Sharon's rose; 
While Christ, the Savior and the King, the rapt Isaiah shows. 

" The warning Jeremiah apostate Israel scorns; 
His plaintive Lamentations then their awful downfall mourns. 
Ezekiel tells in wondrous words of dazzling mysteries; 
While kings and empires yet to come Daniel in vision sees. 

"Of judgment and of mercy Hosea loves to tell; 

Joel describes the blessed days when God with men shall dwell. 

Among Tekoa's herdsmen Amos received his call; 

While Obediah prophesies of Edom's final fall. 

"Jonah enshrines a wondrous type of Christ, our risen Lord. 
Micah pronounces Judah lost — lost, but again restored 
Nahum declares on Nineveh just judgment shall be poured. 



190 B MINDFUL. 

" A view of Chaldea's coming doom Habakkuk's visions give; 
Next Zephaniah warns the Jews to turn, repent and live. 
Haggai wrote to those who saw the Temple built again, 
And Zachariah prophesied of Christ's triumphant reign. 

" Malachi was the last who touched the high prophetic chord; 
Its final notes sublimely show the coming of the Lord. 

" Matthew and Mark, and Luke and John the Holy Gospel wrote, 
Describing how the Savior died — His life, and all He taught. 
Acts shows the Holy Spirit's work with signs in everyplace; 
And Paul in Romans teaches us how man is saved by grace. 

" The Apostle in Corinthians instructs, exhorts, reproves. 
Galatians shows that faith in Christ is what the Father loves. 
Ephesians and Philippians tell what Christians ought to be; 
Colossians bids us live to God and for eternity. 

" In Thessalonians we are taught the Lord will come from heaven. 
In Timothy and Titus a pastor's rule is given. 
Philemon makes a Christian's love, which only Christians know. 
Hebrews reveals the gospel prefigured by the law. 

"James teaches without holiness faith is but vain and dead; 

And Peter points the narrow way in which the saints are led. 

John in his three epistles on love delights to dwell; 

And Jude gives awful warning of judgment, wrath and hell. 

The Revelation prophesies of that tremendous day 

When Christ — and Christ alone — shall be the trembling sinner's stay." 

If you will learn perfectly two lines each day, 
you will find that at the end of a month you will 
know every book in the Bible, and the exact order 
in which it comes. 

Catherine Booth, the mother of the great Sal- 
vation Army, used to learn her first lessons out of 
the Bible. When a child of five, she would stand 
on a footstool at her mother's side and read from 
the sacred page. Before she was twelve years old 
she had read the Book through eight times, from 
cover to cover. 



B MINDFUL. igi 

To the end of her life she had this same in- 
tense love for the Holy Bible, and her last gift to 
each member of her family was a Bible, in which, 
with great difficulty and in much pain, she traced 
her name and the words, "The last token of a 
mother's love." 

We who have our own Bibles and love them 
dearly cannot appreciate how sad it would be not 
to have one. 

The Bible Reader tells us that in the archives 
of the British and Foreign Bible society is a copy 
of the New Testament whose production was a 
labor of love. It is all written by hand, but not 
elegantly done, the crude, cramped writing show- 
ing the toilsome patience of one not used to the 
pen. 

This singular volume is the work of a poor 
Irish laborer, whose education was better than his 
advantages, and whose thirst for the Word of God 
conquered every difficulty to obtain it. He lived 
in the day when copies of the Bible were exceed- 
ingly rare. He learned that one of his neighbors, 
a country gentleman, owned a copy of the New 
Testament in Irish, and went to ask the loan of 
the book. 

11 What would you do with it, my man?" said 
the gentleman, kindly, in surprise. 

ki I would rade it, sir! an' if ye'd let me 'ave it 
that long I'd write it off, an' be kapin' a copy o' 
me own." 

"Why, how could you possibly do it?" 



192 B MINDFUL. 

"I can rade and write, sir." 

"But where would you get the paper?" 

"I would buy it, sir." 

"And pen and ink?" 

"Faith, I'd buy them, too, sir." 

"But you have no convenience to do such 
work. How will you manage that?" 

"Where there is a will there's a way. Maybe 
your honor wouldn' be willing to lend the book." 

"Well, really, my man, I don't know where I 
could get another copy, and I should feel reluc- 
tant to let the volume go out of my house, 
especially for so long a time." 

The poor peasant was disappointed. But he 
made one more appeal. 

"Beg pardon, yer honor, but if ye'd jist allow 
me to sit in yer hall, I cud come up when my 
wurruk'sdone and write it off in the avenings." 

The gentleman granted his request, and for 
months a candle and a place in his hall were al- 
lowed the poor man, till he had copied every 
word of the New Testament. 

Years afterward a Testament was presented to 
the Christian peasant, when he gave up his manu- 
script copy to the Foreign Bible Society, and they 
have kept it as a relic. 

Years ago, in Bohemia, in Austria, a law was 
passed that every Bible in the hands of the people 
should be given to the priests to be burned. 

Those who loved the Book sought for ways 
and means to save it. One day the priests were 



B MINDFUL. I93 

on their rounds, searching for Bibles. Mrs. Sche- 
bolt was told by a neighbor that a priest would 
soon be at her house. It was baking-day, and a 
great batch of dough was on the table. She took 
her Bible, wrapped it neatly in a paper, put it in 
the centre of a mass of dough, placed it in her 
largest bread-tin, and set it in the oven to bake. 
The priest came and searched carefully through 
the house, but could not find the Bible. All he 
saw as he opened the oven door was a big loaf of 
bread baking. 

When the search was over, and the danger 
past, the Bible was taken out of the bread and 
found to be uninjured. It is now 150 years old, 
and is preserved with care by the descendants of 
the woman who loved it so much. 

If we are mindful of His covenant we shall 
not only love the Book, but live it, and that will 
make us thoughtful of others. 

A ragged woman was crossing the corner of a 
public park in a certain city where the children of 
the poor play, many of them barefoot. A burly 
policeman stationed on the corner watched the 
woman suspiciously. Half-way across, she stopped 
and picked up something which she hid in her 
apron. 

Soon the policeman was by her side. In a 
gruff voice he demanded, "What are you carrying 
off in your apron?" The woman was confused, 
and did not answer. Then the officer, thinking 
she had picked up a pocket-book, threatened to 



194 B MINDFUL. 

arrest her, unless she told him what she had in 
her apron. 

The woman opened her apron and showed 
a handful of broken glass. In wonder, the police- 
man asked, "What do you want with that stuff?' 

A flush passed over the woman's face ; then 
she said simply, "If you please sir, I thought I'd 
like to take it out of the way of the children's 
feet." 

The poor woman, mindful of the children, was 
mindful of the Lord's covenant ; for Jesus loves 
and cares for the children ; but the policeman for- 
got the Lord's covenant, for the Book says, be 
kind, be courteous, be patient, be pitiful, be a 
blessing, be mindful, and he was none of these. 

Years ago I read about a little fellow who, 
hurrying along the street, stopped a second, then 
went back quickly and picked up a banana-skin 
and threw it into a refuse-barrel. "Somebody 
else might have slipped on it," he said, and was 
off again. 

Many a time since then have I picked up a 
banana-skin, or an orange-peel, from the side- 
walk and thrown it into the gutter, thinking of 
the little boy, and saying to myself, "Somebody 
might slip on it." His being mindful of others 
has reminded me to be thoughtful too. 

Our Prayer: Blessed Lord, we want to be 
mindful of Thy covenant and thoughtful of 
others. We thank Thee for the Holy Bible. 



Twenty-Sixth Bible B. 
B Quiet. 

"Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall 
be quiet from fear of evil." Pr. 1 : 33. 

"Fear thou not he quiet." Jer. 30:10. 

"Be quiet rest, and be still." Jer. 47:6. 

"Be quiet; fear not, neither be faint hearted." Isa. 7 : 4. 

"Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth 
them unto their desired haven." Ps. 107 : 30. 

"Study to be quiet." ITh. 4:11. 

"Be still." Ps. 4 : 4. 

"Be silent." Isa. 23 : 2, Marg. 

"Peace, be still." Mk. 4 : 39. 

"Be still, and know that I am God." Ps. 46 : 10. 

Draw a blue line under be quiet and be still. 

To be quiet is to be still, hushed, calm, un- 
ruffled, undisturbed, peaceful, mild and gentle. 

There is an old proverb, "A still tongue makes 
a wise head." 

"Study to be quiet," in the Revised Version, 
reads: "Be ambitious to be quiet." Desire to be 
still. Endeavor to be calm. Cultivate the art of 
stillness. Take things as they come. 

If tempted to utter angry, impatient, hasty 
words, then is the time to "study to be quiet." 

A wife went into the sick room of her husband. 
"Turn up the gas," he said; and after a moment 
added, "Hurry, won't you, please." 

"Don't be in such a fret; I'm doing it as fast 



I96 B QUIET. 

as I can," the wife answered angrily, and turned 
to the bed to see what he wanted. 

But the eyes she looked into gave back no 
answering glance. The lips she frantically pressed 
would never ask another favor. 

He had said, "Hurry, won't you, please?" 
feeling that he was dying. And she had answered 
his last request angrily. Ah! had she been quiet 
then, she would have spared herself hours of 
agony. 

If tempted to speak unkind words about an- 
other, then is the time to "study to be quiet." 

There is an association of young people called, 
"The Tongue-Guard Society." Each member 
pledges to give one penny into the treasury every 
time he or she speaks a word against another. 
Their motto is: 

" If aught good thou canst not say 
Of thy brother, foe, or friend, 
Take thou then the silent way, 

Lest in word thou should'st offend." 

If tempted to speak ungraciously or irritatingly 
to another, then is the time to "study to be quiet." 

"Mary," said a mistress, as she heard a door 
creaking, "Shut that kitchen door. It creaks in- 
tolerably. Then put some oil on every hinge in 
the house." 

The girl, muttering, put down her tray and 
left the room. 

Turning to a friend, the mistress said, in a 
complaining tone, "What a plague servants are! 



B QUIET. 197 

You have no idea what I have to put up with. I 
feel as if I should be driven out of my mind. I 
have made three changes in three months." 

"May I give you a little advice?" said her 
friend. 

" Most willingly. Any help will be thankfully 
received." 

" Might you not use the remedy you have just 
given your servant?" 

" I do not understand you." 

" I was thinking of the oil you told her to put 
on the hinges." 

u So you think I might use a little! But how 
am I like a door?" 

u Use a softer voice. Go over your words 
with the oil of love, and you will obtain more 
astounding results than your servant will by oiling 
the hinges." 

A blush rose to the cheek of the mistress, but 
she said: "Many thanks for your words. The 
remedy is simple; I will study to oil my words," 

After that she spoke mildly and lovingly to 
her servants, and had no more such trouble with 
them. 

" Nothing's gained by worrying, 

By hurrying 

And scurrying. 
With fretting and with flurrying 

The temper's often lost; 
And in pursuit of some small prize 
We rush ahead, and are not wise, 
And find the hurried exercise 

A fearful price has cost. 



198 B QUIET. 

" 'Tis better far to join the throng 
That do their duty right along. 
Calm and serene in heart and nerve, 
Their strength is always in reserve, 
And nobly stands each test; 
And every day and all about 
By scenes within, and scenes without, 
We can discern, with ne'er a doubt, 
• That quiet ways are best." 

Pansy tells a story of two little girls who 
learned the lesson of this poem. 

u Oh, dear!" said Emma. 

"I think as much," said Laura, pouting. It 
was all because in a lovely wood they had come 
miles to find, there was a picnic party filling the 
boats, the swings, the croquet grounds, the nice, 
cosy sitting-places under spreading trees, and 
swarming everywhere. 

Emma and Laura wanted that grove for their 
picnic, and the people to attend it were mother 
and father, and Baby Joe, and their two selves. 

"Never mind," said mother. "Our party is 
small; we can find a pleasant place elsewhere." 

But the girls didn't believe it, and they spoiled 
the ride by fretting. They found a lovely old tree, 
and, near it, a stream of water. "Oh, oh," they 
both said, "Father, do please stop here!" 

But father had been looking at the sky, and 
he shook his head. "It wouldn't be safe, girls. 
There is a storm coming. We must drive to a place 
of shelter. Little Joe must not get a wetting." 

Then Emma and Laura grew so wise! They 
were sure it wasn't going to rain a drop; and when 



B QUIET. I99 

father said they must try to reach the village, and 
eat their lunch at a hotel, these unhappy girls 
were miserable. 

They sulked and refused to look at certain 
pretty sights which mother pointed out. At the 
hotel they wanted no dinner, and tossed their 
heads and looked injured. They went for a walk, 
taking an umbrella at their father's command. 
However it was just a dash of rain, which did not 
wet them much. 

11 If we had been under the big tree," they said, 
"not a drop would have touched us." 

When the horse was rested they started for 
home. As they rode along the way grew muddy. 
It was evident the shower had been heavy. At 
last they came to the great old tree. What do you 
think had happened? The lightning had torn the 
branches, uprooted and ruined the beautiful tree. 

"That would have been sure death to any one 
under its branches," said father. The girls looked 
at each other, and did not answer. 

That evening Emma said, " Father knew best." 

11 Yes, indeed," said Laura. 

What a pity they spoiled their day by fretting 
and scolding, instead of quietly making the best 
of circumstances. 

In my Bible are written some lines which I 
like to recall when things seem to be going wrong: 

" Trust and rest, 
Trust and rest, 
God is working for ihe best." 

Trust in God quiets us. A poor woman suf- 



200 B QUIET. 

fered much because of her sins. When she trusted 
Jesus and He forgave her, and cleansed her from 
all sin, she said, " My heart feels as if it were 
asleep." 

Trust in God will keep us quiet. In the pub- 
lic school of a large city, a transom window fell 
with a crash, and the cry of "fire" was raised, 
causing a panic. 

The scholars ran shrieking into the street. 
One teacher jumped out of a window. 

But one little girl stood perfectly still through 
it all. The color left her cheek, her lips quivered, 
and the tears stood in her eyes, but she did not 
move. 

When order was restored, and her companions 
were back in their places, she was asked, *• How 
came you to be so still?" 

She replied, " My father is a fireman ; he knows 
what to do, and he told me if there was a fire in 
the school, I must just sit still." 

The child trusted her father's word and it kept 
her quiet. If we would say in times of panic, " My 
Father knows," it would keep us quiet. 

If we are quiet, it often helps others. Mari- 
anne Farrington has a sweet little poem which 
shows this: 

In the rush and roar of the city, 

In the busy morning hours, 
A little boy — " a waif and a stray " — 

Was trying to sell his flowers. 
He dodged where the wheels were thickest, 

He darted across the street, 
Flying hither and thither, 



B QUIET. 201 

With a scamper of eager feet; 
And ever amid the pauses 
He sang a simple strain; 
" Peace, be still, peace, be still," 
Was the sweet and low refrain. 

Nobody stopped to listen, 

But many must have heard; 
For the boy sang on in his gladness 

As if he loved the word; 
And into his office many a man, 

Perhaps against his will, 
Carried the tune and its lingering thought: 
" Peace, peace, be still." 
For it forced its way to the busy brain 

And into the anxious breast, 
And seemed to promise the toilers 

A respite of after-rest. 

" Fresh flowers! Will you buy a bunch, sir? 

Ah, I am glad you will; 
Only a penny a bunch, sir — 

Peace, peace, be still! " 
The city man, in his hurry, 

Passed on the crowded way, 
And he little guessed what waited him 

Of trouble and care that day; 
But among his morning letters 

Was one that, as he read, 
Covered with pallor the ruddy face, 

And filled the heart with dread. 

" Ruin, absolute ruin! " 

" Peace, peace, be still ! " 
" I never dreamed that this could come ! " 

" Peace, peace, be still! " 
" Is there any help in earth or heaven? " 
" Peace, peace, be still ! " 
At last he heard the gentle voice, 

And answered it, " I will! 
Peace is courage, and courage strength, 

I shall find the light ere long; " 
And the man was helped to victory 
By the lesson in the song. 



202 B QUIET. 

It is beautiful to notice in the life of Jesus that 
He was never worried, or flurried, or hurried. He 
never spoke impatiently. He was quiet when all 
else was tumult. They came by night and arrested 
Him, but He was silent, though a single word 
would have summoned twelve legions of angels to 
smite His enemies with death. Mat. 26: 53. 

They brought false witnesses against Him, 
"but He held His peace." Mat. 26: 63. The 
chief priests accused Him of many things, but He 
answered nothing. Mk. 15: 3; Mat. 27: 12. "Then 
Pilate said unto Him, Hearest Thou not how many 
things they witness against Thee?" And He gave 
him no answer — not even one word. Mat. 27: 14. 
Herod questioned Him with many words, but He 
answered nothing. Lu. 23: 9. 

When they asked Jesus of His disciples, or 
His doctrine, or His office, He answered respect- 
fully and fearlessly, though the answer was His 
death sentence. Jn. 18: 19, 33. But when they 
accused Him and taunted Him, and derided Him, 
and mocked Him, and railed on Him, He held 
His peace. 

Our Prayer — 

" Quiet me, Lord, and keep me so, 

Reposing on Thy breast; 
The weary soul that nestles there 

Shall want no other rest. 
My soul is tired — my heart is faint — 

And flutters with alarms; 
Quiet me, Jesus, clasp me close 

Within Thy loving arms." 



Twenty-Seventh Bible B. 
B Diligent. 

"Be thou diligent." Pr. 27 : 23. 

"Be diligent.... maintain good works." Tit. 3 : 12,14. 
"Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace." 2 Pe. 
3: 14. 

"Give diligence to make your calling sure," 2 Pe. 1:10. 

Mark with a brown B, and draw a brown line under diligent. 

Our heavenly Father has not only com- 
manded us to be diligent, but has also given us 
many promises if we fulfill His Word. Here are 
some of them: 

I. "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule." 
Pr. 12: 24. 

The indolent and lazy will never be royal in 
anything. 

Diligence in study obtains knowledge that 
rules men's thoughts. 

Diligence in business obtains wealth that 
governs commerce. 

Diligence in goodness achieves excellence 
before which even nations will kneel. 

William E. Gladstone, the first orator and 
the greatest statesman in all England, formed the 
habit of diligence in his boyhood. This is one 
secret of his power. He is thorough, painstaking, 
and industrious to the last degree. A friend of 



204 B DILIGENT. 

his youth says of him: u We often had archery 
practice, and the arrows that went wide of the 
target would get lost in the long grass. Most of 
us would have liked to collect only the arrows 
that we could find without trouble, and then begin 
shooting again; but this was not William's way. 

"He would insist that all the arrows should 
be found before we shot our second volley, and 
would marshal us in Indian file, and make us 
tramp about in the grass till every quiverhadbeen 
refitted. Once we were so long in hunting for a 
particular arrow that dusk came on, and we had to 
give up the search. 

u Early the next morning I saw William rang- 
ing the fields and prodding into every tuft of grass 
with a stick. He had been busy in this way for 
two hours, and at length he found the arrow just 
before breakfast." 

It was this persistent diligence which brought 
him at last to the position of British Premier. 

II. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? 
he shall stand before kings." Pr. 22: 29. 

Joseph was diligent in Potiphar's house, Gen. 
39: 1-4, and in the prison, 39: 21-23. He stood 
before Pharoah, Ge. 41 : 14, interpreted his dream, 
Ge. 41 125, and was made ruler over all the land of 
Egypt, Ge. 41:41. 

Moses was diligent in caring for his flocks in 
the desert, Ex. 3:1, until God called him to stand 
before Pharoah, king of Egypt, Ex. 4: 21, and to 
lead His people out of bondage. 



B DILIGENT. 205 

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego 
were marked examples of diligence, Da. 1:4-15. 
They stood before Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon, Da. 2:49. 

Henry M. Stanley was exceedingly diligent 
in his work of exploring Africa. He was sent for 
to confer with all the great powers of Europe. 
The men who sent Stanley out to search for Liv- 
ingstone are not nearly so well-known to fame, 
and have not so high a position as has the dili- 
gent, persistent, intrepid explorer. 

III. "The hand of the diligent maketh rich." 
Pr. 10:4. 

Years ago a boy applied to the owner of a flat- 
boat for a situation. He was employed. After- 
ward the owner returning from dinner asked his 
new hand if he was getting hungry. 

"I ought to be, for I have eaten nothing for 
two days." 

"Why did you not tell me that when I em- 
ployed you?" 

"I feared you would think I only wanted a 
meal and would then skip; so I thought I would 
show you that I was willing to work first." 

Ten days afterward the boat owner trusted 
this boy to carry $500 to his wife, who lived many 
miles away on a farm. 

Soon after the wife wrote; "The boy arrived 
and gave me the $500. I put him to work. He 
rises early and feeds the stock and cuts the wood. 
I like him. What shall I do with him?" 



206 B DILIGENT. 

The captain answered: "Keep that boy, by 
all means." To-day that lad is one of the richest 
owners of steamboat stock on the Mississippi 
river. 

IV. "The thoughts of the diligent tend only to 
plenteousness." Pr. 21:5. 

Richard Newton, in his Leaves From the 
Tree of Life — a good book for young people — 
tells of a gentleman who kept a large drug-store 
in Boston, and advertised for a boy. The next 
day a number of boys applied for the situation. 
One of them was a queer-looking little fellow. 
He came with his aunt, who took care of him. 
Looking at the boy, the merchant said promptly: 
"Can't take him; he's too small." 

"I know he's small," said the aunt, "but he's 
willing and faithful. Please try him, sir." 

There was something in the boy's look which 
made the merchant think again. A partner in 
the firm came forward, and said he "didn't see 
what they wanted with such a boy. . . .he was'nt 
bigger than a pint pot." Still the boy was allowed 
to stay, and put to work. 

Not long after a call was made on the clerks 
for some one to stay through the night. They all 
held back but little Charley, who instantly offered 
his services. In the middle of the night the 
merchant came to the store, to see if all was right; 
and was surprised to find Charley busy cutting 
out labels. 



B DILIGENT. 

"What are you doing?" he asked. "I did'nt 
tell you to work all night." 

"I know you did'nt, sir; but I thought I had 
better be doing something than be idle." 

In the morning, when the merchant came in- 
to his office, he said to the cashier: "Double 
Charley's wages. His aunt said he was willing; 
and so he is." 

A few weeks after this, a menagerie passed 
through the streets. Naturally enough, all hands 
in the store rushed out to see it; but Charley 
stayed in his place. A thief saw his chance and 
entered by the back-door. But by Charley's 
remaining in the store the robber was prevented 
from stealing and was arrested, and things taken 
from other stores were found upon him, and 
returned to their owners. 

"What made you stay to watch, when all the 
others quitted their work to look?" asked the 
merchant. 

"You told me never to leave the store, sir. 
when others were absent; and so I thought I ought 
to stay." 

The order was repeated: "Double that boy's 
wages. His aunt said he was faithful; and so he is." 

Before he left the clerkship he was getting a 
salary of $2,500 a year; and after that he became 
a member of the firm. Here is an example of 
diligence leading to success. And no one will be 
long out of a place who learns the lesson of 
diligence, and practices it in this way. 



208 B DILIGENT. 

V. "He that diligently seeketh good procureth 
favor." Pr. n : 27. 

Phoebe Gray was a sweet child and her father 
loved to hold her in his arms when she was a little 
baby. When she was five years of age, he began 
to go out nights, but still he loved his child 
intensely. 

One night the wind blew and the rain fell 
heavily. A clock struck nine and her father had 
not come yet. "Oh, dear!" said little Phoebe, as 
she started up from the floor where she had been 
lying. "I wish my father would come home." 

Then she sat and listened to the wind and 
rain. The poor child knew how weak her father 
was after he had been drinking. As she sal; and 
listened to the storm her imagination increased, 
until she said: "Oh, mother! he'll get drowned, I 
must go for him." 

"You go for him?" Mrs. Gray might well 
look astonished. 

"Somebody must go for him; he'll get 
drowned," said Phoebe again, in despair. 

"Oh, there is no danger of that; do not be 
afraid." 

But Phoebe's heart could not rest. She looked 
out of the door and along the pavements as far as 
the next corner, where a street lamp threw a 
circle of light. She thought she saw him, and 
said: "Oh, there he is," and ran down the street 
toward the lamp, but no one was to be seen. Far 
down one of the streets a light shone through a 



B DILIGENT. 20O, 

tavern window. "Maybe he is there," she said, 
and ran toward the light. At last she reached the 
tavern and pushing open the door went in. A 
crowd of noisy men were there. The little child, 
all drenched with rain, went in. "Oh father!" she 
cried, as a large man came toward her, and, catch- 
ing her in his arms, ran with her into the street. 
"You poor baby!" he sobbed. 

He carried her home and laid her in her 
mother's arms, and kissed her passionately. "You 
poor baby, it is the last time." It was the last 
time; for Phoebe's diligent love made him resolve 
never to go to the saloon again. 

VI. "The soul of the diligent shall be made 
fat." Pr. 13:4. 

"Nourishing food gives us physical health. 
Spiritual food gives us soul satisfaction. Jere- 
miah said: "Thy words were found, and I did eat 
them; and thy word was unto me the joy and 
rejoicing of mine heart." Jer. 15: 16. 

As Mr. Williams was walking along the 
streets of a certain city, he saw coming toward 
him on his knees a man whose hands and feet 
were eaten off by disease. The man was kept 
from the house of God by his affliction, but his 
soul was "made fat" by spiritual begging. He 
shouted: "Welcome, servant of God. . . .to you we 
are indebted for the Word of Heaven." Mr. 
Williams asked the cripple what he knew about 
heaven, and found he gave exceedingly intelligent 
answers about Jesus Christ, prayer, the future life, 



210 B DILIGENT. 

and the work of the Holy Spirit. He said: 
"Where did you obtain all this knowledge?" 

The man, whose name was Buteve answered: 
"As the people return from the service I sit by 
the wayside and beg from them, as they pass by, 
a bit of the Word; one and another give me a 
piece, and I gather them together in my heart, 
and thinking over what I thus obtain, and pray- 
ing God to make me know, I get to understand." 

This poor cripple, who had never been in a 
place of worship, had thus diligently picked up 
the crumbs which fell from the Lord's table and 
eagerly devoured them; and though his body 
suffered, his soul was filled with joy. 

Our Prayer: Heavenly Father, help us to 
be diligent, not so much because we want to be 
great, but because we want to be good. Make us 
thoughtful, careful, painstaking and thorough. 
Help us to do with our might what our hands find 
to do. For Jesus' sake. Amen. 



Twenty-Eighty Bible B. 
B Followers. 

"Be followers of that which is good." 1 Pe. 3 : 13. 

"Be followers of God, as dear children." Eph. 5: 1. 

"Be followers of them who through faith and patience 

inherit the promises."' He. 6:12. 

Mark with a red B. 

We follow that which is good when we follow 
God, and we follow God when we follow the ex- 
ample of Jesus. He left us "an example that we 
should follow in His steps." I Pe. 2: 21. 

The story is told of a little girl who ran into 
her home one Sunday afternoon, and said: "O 
grandma! I know where I want papa to take me 
on my vacation now, 'cause Miss Wilford says we 
can't be like Jesus if we don't walk in His steps." 

u But what has that to do with my little girl's 
vacation?" 

44 Why everything. How can we walk in His 
steps if we don't go to Jerusalem where He was? 
Jesus never walked here, did He? But, grandma, 
won't His footsteps be covered up? How could 
we find 'em?" she said anxiously. 

"We could not, child; they are covered. Your 
teacher did not mean the foot-prints Jesus made 
when walking here. Bring the hassock and sit by 



212 B FOLLOWERS. 

grandma. Maybe she can work out this knotty 
problem." 

"But I want to go to Jerusalem, grandma." 

u We will see about that later. Where can 
mamma be going with that basket? Not far, I 
hope, this warm day. She is not well," grandma 
said. 

"O! to Mervin's, I suppose," said Amy, with 
a pout. "She's always carrying something over 
there. Why don't they let Alice come and get 
the victuals? Mamma wanted me to go, but I didn't 
want to. Alice always has on an old, faded dress, 
and she never has a penny to spend. I always 
have to share my candy with her. I don't like to 
go where folks don't have carpets on the floor. 
May says if I go with Alice Mervin, I can't go 
with her." 

"Did Miss Wilford tell you anything about 
the babe in the manger," grandma asked. 

"She did, one time." 

"Did she say He was rich?" 

"No, poor — oh, so poor." 

"And yet you would like to travel away to 
Jerusalem to walk in His footsteps. I don't under- 
stand. You don't like Alice because she is poor. 
Jesus was poorer than Alice, for He had not where 
to lay His head. You are on the wrong road, 
dear. Have you never thought how pleased Alice 
would be to have some of the nice things my little 
girl has? She cannot help being poor. But Jesus 
loves Alice, Amy." 



B FOLLOWERS. 21 3 

"How can He, grandma?" 

"Because He is so good. He knows how 
hard it is for the poor little girl, and He pities her 
when Amy Truman slights her." 

"Does He know it?" 

"Yes, always, and He is grieved." 

"Is it because I am not good, grandma, that 
I don't like Alice?" 

"Yes, you do not walk in His steps." 

"Well, how can I, grandma? they are so far 
away." 

"Your mamma has found them. She walked 
from this house to Alice's home in His steps." 

"How, grandma?" 

"Listen, dear — whenever we say a kind word 
or do a kind deed, we are right in Christ's foot- 
steps. He went about doing good; so when we 
are good, we are traveling where He traveled when 
on earth. Little children are not the only ones 
who are making mistakes, dear. Grown-up people 
are traveling way off to Jerusalem — for great 
things to do, while the very things God wants 
them to do lie right at their feet. If you want to 
please Jesus, and be like Him, you must try to do 
good and be good. Then you will find His foot- 
prints." 

Though it cost Amy a great deal, she offered 
the next morning to carry the breakfast mamma 
had prepared for little Tom Mervin. 

Soon Amy and Alice were fast friends. And 



214 B FOLLOWERS. 

Amy was glad grandma had taught her how to 
follow in the steps of Jesus. 

We read in the blessed Book, that Caleb 
"wholly followed the Lord." Deu. i: 36. He 
followed Him "fully." Nu. 14: 24. To follow 
the Lord cheerfully, without questioning, and 
constantly, without wavering, is to follow Him 
"wholly " and " fully," and have His approval. 

Two gentlemen were walking together one 
dark night, when one said: " I shall follow you, so 
as to be right." He soon fell into a ditch and 
reproached his friend that he had fallen. "You 
did not follow me exactly, for I have kept free," 
was the answer. Then the man realized it was a 
side-step that had caused his fall. 

Dean Stanley stood with a poor workingman 
beside John Wesley's monument in Westminster 
Abbey. They were talking about the Dean's 
recent visit to Palestine. 

" It must be beautiful to have walked where 
the Savior walked," the man said. The Dean 
lifted his saintly face and answered: "Yes, it is 
beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior." 

We "walk, even as He walked," 1 Jn. 2:6, 
when we "follow after love," 1 Co. 14: 1. 

When we are in doubt what to do, if we will 
ask the question, " What would Jesus do?" it will 
help us to follow Jesus. For He said: " He that 
followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
have the light of life." Jno. 8: 12. 

In a city alley a crowd of boys and girls were 



B FOLLOWERS. 21 5 

jeering a feeble old man. They had pinned on 
his back a paper with the words, "Who'll bid for 
the old saint?" 

A child coming up took the paper from the 
aged man's back and spoke kindly to him. 

A rough lad caught the youthful protector 
and shouted, " Hullo, sneak, you'll get something 
for this," and began tormenting him. 

A gentleman stopped it and began talking to 
the lad who had befriended the aged man. " Sir, 
do you know what made me do it?" the lad asked. 

44 No, what was it?" " That old man they calls 
'Saint Willie' comes to our house to read and 
talk to mother. He said to me: 4 If ever you're a* 
going to do anything, say to yourself, 'What would 
Jesus do?' and that's what made me do it." 

Some one gives this bit of experience: "The 
words, 'What would Jesus do?' printed in silver 
letters, on a black card, in the shape of a shield, 
hung in every room, halls, parlors, dining-room, 
and kitchen. 

' Such a home-like house it was, that watering- 
place boarding-house, with its large, cool rooms, 
filled with pleasant guests; and the cheery family 
who had the faculty of making one feel so much 
at home that it was more like visiting than board- 
ing. Ah, what a place to rest in! 

" But that card; what did it mean? 

44 1 knew the elder daughter was soon to go as 
a missionary to the foreign field, and wondered 



2l6 B FOLLOWERS. 

why she had not selected some Bible text for the 
home instead of that question. 

" One day I came in feeling cast down, almost 
to despair; I knew not what to do, or say, or think; 
and I knew of no friend to whom I could look. 

" Suddenly my eyes fell on the silver letters, 
'What Would Jesus Do?' and their meaning 
flashed on me; what would He do if He were here 
and if my trouble were His? 

14 So I lost no time in asking Him what to do, 
and He led me, step by step, through my great 
trouble." 

If we follow Christ, others will follow us. 
He. 6: 12. 

Years ago, a party of missionaries started for 
a cannibal island. As the ship neared the shore 
they saw the cannibal fires, and the captain refused 
to land. The missionaries persuaded him to lower 
a boat and send a sailor to land them. As they 
drew close to shore they could see the cannibals 
with sharpened knives, ready to kill and roast and 
eat them, and the sailor would not row them to 
the shore, and all but one of them wanted to turn 
back. This one jumped overboard and swam to 
the shore. 

He could see the cannibals coming toward 
him with brandished knives, but he did not falter. 
They rushed toward him, but the instant before 
they reached him, their chief ordered a halt. 

Then the chief asked the missionary why he 
had braved death. He answered: "I have a 



B FOLLOWERS. 2\J 

mighty God who upholds me in every time of 
trouble, and I wanted to come and tell you about 
Him." 

The chief ordered that his life should be 
spared until he had told his story. The result was 
an island won for God. 

When he left, the natives were weeping on 
the shore. 

One man brought a pair of boots for his 
acceptance. 

"But how did you know the size of my foot? " 
said he. 

The reply was, "I loved you so much, that I 
took the shape of your foot in the sand as I 
followed you." 

The missionary, much moved, said, "If you 
love your Savior as you have loved me, and 
follow his footsteps as you have mine, you will be 
led from the glory-path to glory itself." 

Our Prayer — 

u O Holy Lord, content to fill 

In lowly home the lowliest place; 
Thy childhood's law a mother's will, 
Obedience meek, Thy brightest grace; 

"Help me to follow where You lead, 

To walk in Thine own guileless way; 
The precious Word of God to heed, 
And humbly, like Thyself, obey." 



Twepty-JSttptl? Bible B. 
B Perfect. 

"Be perfect." 2 Co. 13: 11. 
"Be perfect." Jas. 1 : 4. 

Draw a red line under perfect, and mark with a red B. 

We say a picture is perfect when we cannot 
detect any flaw in it; that a machine is perfect 
when it does well what it was intended to do; 
that a landscape is perfect when it delights our 
eyes; that our work is perfect when it is done as 
well as we know how to do it. 

4 You have planed that board well, have you, 
Frank?" a carpenter asked of a boy who was 
working for him. 

. "Oh! it will do," replied the boy. "It don't 
need to be very well planed for the use to be 
made of it. Nobody will see it." 

" It will not do if it is not planed as neatly 
and smoothly as possible," the carpenter said. 
He was a most conscientious man, and had the 
reputation of being the best carpenter in the city. 

" I suppose I could make it smoother," said 
the boy. 

"Then do it. 'Good enough' has but one 
meaning in my shop, and that is * perfect.' If a 
thing is not perfect, it is not good enough for me." 



B PERFECT. 219 

We should never rest satisfied to do or to be 
less than our best. 

We are at our best when we are perfect 
in love. 1 Jno. 4:17, 18. — Not perfect as Adam 
and Eve were before they sinned; not perfect as 
the angels who never sinned; not perfect in wis- 
dom, and knowledge, and might, as God is; but 
perfect in love, as the heavenly Father is; for 
Jesus was talking about love when he said: u Be 
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is 
in heaven is perfect." Mat. 5: 48. 

This love is God's gift. It is not something 
to which we attain by struggling; it is something 
we obtain by faith. This love is shed abroad in 
our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Rom. 5: 5. 

God is love. We give Him our hearts, and 
He fills them with Himself. To " be filled with 
the Spirit," Eph. 5: 18, is to be filled with love. 
While talking about being perfect in a meet- 
ing one day, Dr. Bangs, who was leading, 
said to a gentleman, who was a father: "If your 
son was busy among his toys on the floor, and 
you told him to come to you, and he, in the full- 
ness of his love and wish to please you, should 
drop his things and in his eager coming stumble 
over his blocks and fall, would you blame him, or 
pick him up with sympathetic words of comfort 
and commendation, and with caution for the 
future, as well? We do not claim to be perfect 
in wisdom and power, but that our hearts through 



220 B PERFECT. 

faith in God's promises are so filled with God's 
love that it is a joy to do His commandments." 

In the Woodward Garden, at San Francisco, 
was a lion so wild and fierce that it was dangerous 
to go near him, but the superintendent by per- 
tistent gentleness and kindness won the love of 
the noble beast so that he could go into his cage 
and drop down beside him and the lion would 
raise his head to give him a soft place on which 
to lie. One day a drunken sailor, doubling his 
fist, struck at the superintendent. The lion roared 
so fearfully and dashed so frantically against his 
cage that the man ran away frightened. At 
length, the lion had a tumor. A difficult opera- 
tion had to be performed but no one dared even 
approach the lion except the superintendent. The 
physicians drew a diagram of the operation, show- 
ing him where to cut. With apprehension he 
entered the cage with his implements, for the lion 
was restless with pain. He followed the medical 
directions, talking soothingly to the noble beast. 
The lion let him cut, and bore the knife bravely, 
and licked his hand gratefully when it was over. 
But the operation only afforded temporary relief, 
and the lion suffered so much it was decided he 
must be killed. The superintendent took his 
revolver, and after petting the animal, put the 
muzzle close to his head and fired one shot. The 
lion made no resistance, but gave his keeper a 
pathetic look, in which there was no anger — only 
surprise and reproach. Three times the man was 



B PERFECT. 221 

obliged to fire, but the poor beast only looked at 
him with a sad, beseeching, perplexed look, and 
so he died. 

As we read how a love which was only human 
could so tame, and quiet, and absorb a beast of 
the field that he would give back to his master a 
perfect affection, let us resolve that the love 
which is Infinite shall fill our hearts and lives 
with a loving faith which nothing can shake. 

We have perfect love when we love as Jesus 
did. Jno. 13: 34. Annie Weston Whitney tells 
of a dear girl who saved her baby-sister in a 
dreadful fire. The story got into the papers, and 
Mrs. Carter went to the hospital to see the girl. 

" Here she is," said the nurse, stopping beside 
one of the dainty white beds in the hospital ward, 
" the brave little woman of whom we are all so 
proud." 

The visitor looked down on a girl whose eyes 
brightened as the nurse spoke, but whose band- 
ages suggested pain and suffering. Mrs. Carter 
stooped and kissed her, and then with tears in 
her eyes said: 

" I knew your mother, my dear; and I have 
traveled fifty miles to see the daughter who saved 
her little baby-sister from a horrible death by 
taking the burns and bruises herself." 

" Dear mamma!" said the girl softly. "I'm 
glad you knew her. Thank you so much for 
coming." 



222 B PERFECT. 

u But the baby?" asked the visitor. "What 
became of her?" 

"Here she is," said the nurse, lifting from a 
crib a laughing little one, who held out her arms 
and tried to go to the sick girl; "there was no one 
to take care of her when the father was at work, 
and Dorothy begged so hard for her that the 
doctor thought it best to let her come. She 
deserves everything she wants, too, for I have 
never seen any one bear such terrible suffering so 
patiently and cheerfully as she does. She is a 
wonder to us all, doctors included." 

The nurse laid the baby as she spoke by 
Dorothy's side; and though she could not move 
her bandaged arm to touch her, she smiled and 
talked to her, and when they took her away said, 
simply: 

"While the pain is very, very bad, I just think 
how much I love her, and how glad I am I did it, 
and how glad mamma would be that she was not 
hurt; and I turn and look at her, and forget some 
of the pain; so I call it love-pain, and then it is 
easier to bear, don't you see?" 

"Love-pain!" said Mrs. Carter, with tears in 
her eyes. "Yes, my dear, I see how you are help- 
ing to show how Christ was glad to suffer for us 
because He loved us. His suffering, too, was 
'love pain.'" 

When Dorothy was better, and Mrs. Carter 
took her and her baby to her own home, there 
was sadness among the patients left behind, for 



B PERFECT. 223 

they had learned to love the girl who bore her 
sufferings so cheerfully for love's sake. 

There is one thing we want to remember. 
We are never perfect in ourselves. We are "per- 
fect in Christ Jesus." Col. 1: 28. Jesus said, 
"Without me ye can do nothing." Jno. 15:5. 

God makes us perfect in every good work to 
do His will, working in us that which is well- 
pleasing in His sight. Heb. 13: 20, 21. We just 
let Him have our hearts and our hands, and 
work in them and with them, and so we can 
"stand perfect and complete in all the will of 
God." Col. 4: 12. 

Our love may be perfect, yet it can increase. 
A drop of water is as perfect as an ocean of water. 

A lady said to her pastor: "I do love God 
very much, but want to love Him more. How 
can I?" 

u You must become better acquainted with 
Him," was the reply. "We love those who are 
worthy of our love in proportion as we become 
acquainted with them." 

"How can I get better acquainted?" she 
asked. 

"Try to please God in everything you do and 
say. We always love those whom we try to 
please. Love makes us wish to please the Lord, 
and love rewards us when we have done it. 

"And pray more. Tell Him all your joys 
and troubles and needs. He will answer you, and 
every answer will draw you closer to Him. 



224 B PERFECT. 

"And study the Bible more. God speaks 
to you, reveals Himself to you in the Bible. 
Read in the New Testament the life of Jesus, and 
imagine you had been with him, as John, and 
Peter, and Mary were," 

The woman followed these simple rules, and 
her love to God grew day by day. 

We read that u all Scripture is given. . . .that 
the man of God may be perfect." 2 Ti. 3: 16, 17. 

Reading the Bible as God's love-letter to me, 
has helped me. 

When He says, "Beloved," I read it as if He 
wrote it to me. 1 Pe. 4: 12; 3 Jno. 2. 

When he says, "Walk in love," Eph. 5:21 
look up and say, "I will, Lord; just show me how." 

When I read, "who loved me and gave Him- 
self for me," Ga. 2: 20, I just know He died for 
me and then I love Him so for it that I want to 
do something for somebody. 

When I read, "Thou shalt lie down and thy 
sleep shall be sweet," Pr. 3: 24, I say, "Thank 
You, Lord," and know I shall not lie awake and 
think over the trials that once would have 
worried me. 

Our Prayer: Blessed Lord, show us what 
You mean when You say, "Be perfect." Come 
into our hearts and fill us with Thy perfect love. 
We believe You do. We trust Thee to make us 
perfect in love, and perfect in every good work 
to do Thy will. 




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